THE KNIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS: Another Inevitable Christmas Cringe-Fest
With the holiday season upon us, Netflix is again spreading Christmas cheer in cringeworthy fashion with another festive addition to their platform. Continuing their annual tradition of releasing cheesy Christmas films, this year The Knight Before Christmas is one of their main festive originals. Brooke (Vanessa Hudgens) and Sir Cole (Josh Whitehouse) are the slightly mismatched romantic leads, separated by different continents and several centuries.
Mismatched Love
The film sets the scene in England in 1334 as a group of knights go on quests in the build up to Christmas. Among them is Sir Cole, who stumbles upon an “Old Crone”, an older woman hiding in the forest, who sends him on a different mission much further away than he could imagine. Zapped into the middle of a Christmas market in 2019’s Ohio, Sir Cole bumbles along, attempting to understand modern times.
Parallel to Sir Cole’s story, we’re introduced to Brooke, a teacher who just so happens to be at the same Christmas market as Sir Cole. She’s there with her niece and, after buying hot chocolates, she literally bumps into Sir Cole who’s still at market looking slightly lost. She spills the chocolate beverage all over his armour and they make some serious eye contact before she meets up with her sister.
Later, while driving home, Brooke drives into Sir Cole who, still wandering around, has sauntered onto the road. From there it becomes clear that Brooke is smitten with the knight and believes she has caused some sort of amnesia or similar head injury. He keeps going on about being a knight and acting abnormally. Ever the good samaritan (and slightly smug about it), Brooke takes him under her wing and houses him in the guest house.
Fortunately, her parents left the giant multi-house property to her and not her sister when they died a few years back. Luckily Brooke also still have some of her ex-beau’s old clothes for the freshly showered, buff knight to slip into. It all seems suspiciously too good to be true.
The Christmas Filmmaking Machine
From the opening scenes up to the “meet cute” moment, it’s clear that we have a typical ‘Christmas miracle’ film on our hands. Netflix has released several similar films over the past few years. A Christmas Prince (2017) shows the journalist Amber (Rose McIver) collide with the world of royals as she falls involve with Prince Richard. The sequels to this film, A Christmas Prince: The Royal Wedding (2018) and A Christmas Prince: The Royal Baby (2019), with similar wholesome content, have intensified Netflix’s tight grip on themes of Christmas and royalty. The Princess Switch (2018) stars Vanessa Hudgens in leading roles, as both the ‘average Joe’ character Stacey and upper class Lady Margaret. The two switch roles in a magical turn of events and the film adds further insight into what Netflix considers a winning Christmas film formula.
What we are left to wonder is how many more films Netflix will make with this exact formula. Of course they’re feel-good festive fun, but we should perhaps consider just how “original” these Netflix Originals actually are.
14th and 21st Century Crossed Lovers
Netflix has clearly been championing the Christmas-royal theme over the past few years. However, they have perhaps exhausted the Prince-Princess romance and need to branch out to other titles through Sir Cole. This is no bad thing and variety certainly adds some comical moments to The Knight Before Christmas. Sir Cole continues to be his knighted self in 2019. He practices with his sword in the garden, lights a bonfire in the yard, and puts Brooke’s Alexa device in the freezer because he doesn’t understand off switches.
The Netflix original follows the same general structure as its predecessors. The slight difference here is the inclusion of time travel. Sir Cole’s 14th century mentality visits the 2019 and almost immediately he settles into everyday life with Brooke. If a knight from the 14th century were to pop up in the year 2019, wouldn’t his opinions clash with the independent character of Brooke? A woman living alone in her own home, with her own “steed” (AKA car) seems like something a knight might take issue with. It transpires that Sir Cole is pretty chilled out for a 14th century knight.
The Knight Before Christmas: Conclusion
From the outset, we know what type of film we’re watching. The two leads will end up together and they’ll get their “happily-ever-after” ending just in time for Christmas. There are no surprises there. If you’re looking for surprises, you’re definitely watching the wrong film.
Thematically and structurally the film is an overdone Christmas romance which doesn’t really bring anything new to the table, other than an actual knight in armour wandering around in 2019. So, if you’re looking for some background noise with romantic Christmas vibes, The Knight Before Christmas would probably meet your expectations.
Did you find the film more cringeworthy than other Christmas films? Let us know your thoughts below!
The Knight Before Christmas was released on 21st November 2019 and is now available to stream on Netflix.
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