Holiday Rush (2019)

★★

---

After his sudden firing, a popular radio DJ moves in with his aunt, bringing along his four spoiled children, and a plan to return to the airwaves.

Classification: PG

---

Cheesy but likeable, due to the enjoyable chemistry of leads Romany Malco and Sonequa Martin-Green this Christmas comedy Holiday Rush still suffers from predictable storytelling and uneven tonal decisions. Revolving around Malco's successful radio DJ finding himself unemployed, he has to deal with rejuvenating his career while parenting his spoiled children who aren't happy about losing their affluent lifestyle. Director Leslie Small can inject some surprising emotion in the story when it's allowed to be serious and has themes of family and responsibility to take charge against the exaggerated contrived comedy.

Malco's character Rush Williams, a widower gives the film sweet little moments of parenting his children as their selfish behaviour gets the better than them. The driving conflict of the film is very superficial as the antagonists of the film and Deon Cole's performance, in particular, is very hammy. When focusing on Rush's connections to his children and his insecurities as a father Holiday Rush succeeds as a film celebrating family and the holidays. The DJ storyline may be the catalyst for the Williams' relocation and a chance for Malco to spin out some obnoxious bravado and comedy but it feels tacked on against the rest of the plot. All of the scenes of the moustache-twirling evil radio station that wants to crush Rush and his producer Roxy Richardson's new radio station are so cringe-worthy. The scenes with the family can get a little schmaltzy especially because of twin girls wanting a pony or Darlene Love playing Rush's wise aunt but overall it doesn't damage the immersion.

In fact, it's Leslie Small's reality breaking narrative choices both through non-diegetic sound effects, extremely poor green screen and having Malco's character converse with a ghost that derail the film for the audience. Holiday Rush has performances and scenes that elevate it from the standard festive trash that Netflix has been pumping out but that doesn't mean its not falling victim to these tropes. The instances where the film goes in these directions really breaks the connection it's building with the audience and trivialises the emotional connection the film is building in the story. Rush needs to reconnect with his children and make peace over the death of his wife, the memories of her illness causing tension with his eldest children has its realism undercut when Malco has a full dialogue scene with an actress playing the glowing ghost of Rush's wife. The film never tries to establish any fantasy or magical nature to its Christmas story so the more outlandish elements just stick out like a sore thumb.

What elevates Holiday Rush slightly from the rest of the cheap and cheesy Christmas cash-ins are the two lead performances, Malco doesn't deviate from his usual routine of likeable comedy but does enough to keep the character likeable. Especially when he gets those moments revolving around his parenting and his romance with Sonequa Martin-Green's character Roxy. The romance element isn't particularly engaging from a scripting perspective, obviously seen coming from the moment the film started but the two actors use their natural charisma to make their character's connection engaging. When the film doesn't build out a gripping narrative, the romance subplot seems rushed but Martin-Green is such a delight in the film with her dazzling smile, fiery personality and amazing hair stylings.

The film plays it safe from beginning to end, doing enough to have it act like a real film but also infusing the typical holiday sentimentality to keep it in the Hallmark traditions. Holiday Rush, when compared to more recent Netflix Christmas films, is a damn miracle as it doesn't scrape the bottom of the barrel for comedy and cliché its entire runtime. It has its noticeable weaknesses but genuine compassion to its performances and story playing into the advantages of the genre tropes, making it a warm, enjoyable viewing for the holiday season.

---

Director: #LeslieSmall

Cast: #RomanyMalco, #SonequaMartinGreen, #LaLaAnthony, #AmarrMWooten, #DeonCole, #TamalaJones, #RoscoeOrman, #DarleneLove

Release Date: November 28th 2019

Available exclusively on Netflix

Trailer:

---

Written review copyright ©CoreyBullochReviews

Images and Synopsis from the Internet Movie Database