Movie Review :: Netflix’s My Secret Santa

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After last week’s grittier Jingle Bell Heist, Netflix switches gears in an attempt to out-Hallmark the Hallmark Channel with a more light-hearted holiday rom-com movie, My Secret Santa.

My Secret Santa stars Alexandra Breckenridge as Taylor Jacobson, single mom working for a cookie company who suddenly finds herself unemployed at the height of the Christmas season because of a downturn in the Christmas cookie market. At the same time, daughter Zoey has been accepted into a snowboarding school at a local ski resort, but Taylor can barely make ends meet as it is. She assures Zoey she will make it work, so she begins scouring the apartment for things to sell. First up is a crate of old records, and when the store owner offers her a low-ball appraisal a customer takes interest in her collection, noticing what he calls a collector’s item, an album by a local band called Screaming Kittens … and then he realizes the person on the cover with the blue hair is the person standing in front of him. Taylor was the lead singer and that was their only album. The man, Matthew, talks the owner into upping the offer from $100 to $150 and Taylor takes the money and makes her exit … followed by Matthew who asks her to grab a hot chocolate with him. Taylor is a firm no, but Matthew isn’t deterred.

Still trying to figure out how she’s going to pay for the snowboarding school, Taylor discovers that employees of the resort get 50% off the tuition, so now all she has to do is get a job there. Sounds easy enough, and Taylor tries hard to sell herself to the desk clerk, but he assures her there are no positions open. Taylor, however, overhears manager Natasha Burton saying that the resort’s Santa just quit and they need to find a new one ASAP. At the same time, the resort’s owner, Robert Layne, is having a chat with his son about his non-existent responsibility, causing destruction wherever he goes (Italy, in this case, with charges in the millions), so from now on he will be working at the resort, training under Natasha to be general manager — a position she feels she deserves — even though Natasha hates Robert’s irresponsible son … Matthew. Armed with the information about the Santa position, Taylor asks her special effects make-up artist brother and his boyfriend to help create a Santa look for her so she can apply. Crafting an incredibly complicated make-up and costume in record time, Taylor appears at the Santa interview (where none of the applicants are remotely acceptable, but what do you expect days before Christmas?), and gets the job under the name Hugh Mann. Zoey gets into the snowboarding school, but she’s being bullied by another girl, Ava, and Matthew finds that he feels he knows Hugh somehow. Taylor nearly gets fired for trying to dissuade kids from their Christmas gift wishes, but things turn around as Santa inspires a young girl with a stutter to sing to help with the stutter, videos of the moment going viral. Natasha is growing suspicious of Hugh, especially as Matthew’s favor is rising with his father, and she learns that Hugh is using a Social Security number belonging to Taylor Jacobson. Taylor is also finally letting down her guard and is getting closer to Matthew, but agreeing to be his date to a function at which Hugh must also appear only makes Natasha more suspicious as the two are never in the room at the same time. An accident on the ski slope involving Zoey brings things to a head and Taylor must decide if she will reveal her identity and risk losing everything she’s built up with Matthew.

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If you’re looking for holiday fare that doesn’t quite fit the Hallmark mold, My Secret Santa should be right up your alley. It’s sweet but not too sweet — the landlord with designs on Hugh and a funny scene in a men’s rest room take this out of Hallmark territory — and the film makes great use of the stunning wintry location in British Columbia. The story by Ron Oliver and Carley Smale takes a completely improbably situation and makes it totally enjoyable once you suspend all disbelief (if you know anything about prosthetic make-up, there is no way they could have created something so realistic in such a short time, nor could Taylor apply it herself so quickly … but we’ll chalk it up to Christmas magic). The characters are all well-drawn, and each of the main players will have a chance to grow over the course of the story. Director Mike Rohl keeps the action moving seamlessly from scene to scene, giving laughs and good cheer without being overly dramatic or too saccharine sweet.

The movie really succeeds with its winning cast, top the list is Alexandra Breckenridge. She plays Taylor as the perfectly down-to-earth mom who has put her past behind her (Zoey has no idea about her band days, and only figures it out when she hears Matthew call her ‘Screaming Kitten’), and will do anything to provide for the daughter she dotes on. When she becomes Hugh, her mannerisms change, she makes her voice a bit more gruff, and she never really gives away that there is a woman behind the make-up and fat suit. She totally inhabits the role of Hugh and Santa (while also giving some Melissa McCarthy vibes at the same time), making them both fully rounded. There are some clever moments when Hugh encounters Ava, knowing she’s been bullying Zoey, surprising the girl with all of his knowledge but … it’s Santa, all-seeing and all-knowing. Breckenridge is able to use the Hugh/Santa persona to really talk personally to others, including Matthew, imparting words of wisdom she may not have been able to give as Taylor. She gives a really wonderful performance and is the real heart of the movie.

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Ryan Eggold is also very good as Matthew, the ne’er-do-well spoiled son of the hotel magnate. Eggold plays him not as a completely obnoxious person, just one that may be misguided because he’s always been handed everything so he really has no sense of responsibility. But he reluctantly accepts the task his father has given, maybe as a form of self-preservation so he isn’t cut off completely, and Eggold shows how Matthew is able to grow emotionally over the course of the story. He never gives up on Taylor, no matter how many times she shuts him down, and once things turn around with Santa — which almost becomes a disaster until the viral video — he becomes more confident that he actually can do the job and show his father that his confidence in his son was not misplaced. Also doing a fabulous job is Tia Mowry as Natasha, making this woman completely focused on her job and career, suffering no fools (especially not Matthew), but showing that she is not above some conniving to keep herself in the top spot, doing every subtle thing she can to trip him up (like emailing him the time for the Santa interviews an hour later than scheduled), relishing any moment that he fails, and not shy about exposing the fraudulent Hugh in front of everyone lined up to see Santa. She also gets to show a bit of humanity when it is revealed she has a daughter … and that apple did not fall far from the tree. Mowry often makes the best of her scenes without dialogue, just using her facial expressions to convey everything Natasha is feeling. It really is a terrific performance.

Madison MacIsaac plays Zoey just like an average teen, but one who knows and accepts her station in life. She and her mom are comfortable, but they live a no frills lifestyle, and Zoey is okay with that, even assuring her mom it’s okay that she can’t afford the snowboarding school but letting us hear in her voice the utter disappointment. She really gives a lovely, down-to-earth performance. Sasha Rojen plays Ava as the perfect mean girl, always ready with a demeaning or derogatory comment for Zoey, but later is able to show that she is more insecure than anything after her talk with Santa, feeling ignored by her work-focused mother, getting a chance to really grow after Zoey’s accident. Barry W. Levy is appropriately gruff as Robert, having no more time for his son’s shenanigans, showing him some tough love to help Matthew finally grow up, but also having him on a short enough leash so that if anything happens, he can easily blame it on his son. Even he is able to grow a bit by the end of the story. Diana Maria Riva offers some laughs as landlord Doralee. At first she seems pretty mean with Taylor (though her rent is late … again, so her terseness can be expected), but when she spots Hugh in Taylor’s van and Hugh says he’s Taylor’s father, her whole demeanor changes and she is as nice to Taylor as can be … because she wants Hugh. It’s all pretty funny, but then we also feel sorry for her when she realizes that Hugh was Taylor all along, the one bright spot in her life now taken away. But might she finds a new man to lock onto by the end?

My Secret Santa is a totally winning Christmas rom-com that makes great use of its location, with a script that offers laughs and heart, and an outstanding cast headed by the remarkable performance of Alexandra Breckenridge. It may not set the world on fire, but it is an utterly charming breath of fresh air in the crowded holiday movie season.

My Secret Santa has a run time of 1 hour 30 minutes, and is streaming on Netflix.

My Secret Santa | Official Trailer