The Merry Gentlemen

Review: This Christmas rom com from Netflix stars Britt Robertson as a woman fired from her job as a dancer on Broadway who must return home to save her parents small town venue. Classic. But what separates this film is that the way she decides to save it by raising money through a chippendales-esque show starring her love interest, brother-in-law, the venue’s bartender, it’s most frequent patron, & a local cab driver. Love it. This movie follows the typical pattern of a film in this arena, but it executes it well. I will praise that it just jumps right into the story and continues rolling. Some other notes I made about the film were that the protagonist’s parents were incredibly supportive, supporting both her strip tease fundraiser idea & her choice to go back to New York. Another note is that I was quite literally thinking ‘Hm, something needs to go wrong right about now’ when Ashley (Robertson) received the phone call from her choreographer asking her to come back. I also appreciated that they referenced the common ‘Hallmark’ style tropes, even calling the male lead (Chad Michael Murray) a ‘Hallmark small town handyman.’ My final note is that while it appears some business in this small town are struggling, I think its safe to say their gym is THRIVING.

High: Chad Michael Murray is hot.

Low: In a movie that isn’t really meant to be that good, I could’ve picked a lot of things as the low. But I will say it drove me absolutely crazy how many times Chad Michael Murray’s character said ‘city girl.’

Rating: 4.5/10