Aahana Swrup
Directed by Rusty Cundieff ‘Meet Me Next Christmas’ is a Netflix holiday rom-com film that charts a woman’s quest through New York City in search of the threads of true love. Layla has an ill-timed meet-cute with James at an airport lounge on Christmas. Since the pair can’t be together right then, they decide to meet again at a Pentatonix concert a year later. However, as next Christmas rolls around, Layla finds herself in a bind when the concert sells out before she can snag a ticket.
As a result, with the help of Teddy, a professional concierge, Layla goes around town, getting looped into increasingly outrageous scenarios for a chance to reunite with the man fate seems to be pushing her toward. The film equips a genre-appropriate saccharine narrative populated with entertaining characters and compelling plot points. As such, even during its more outlandish beats, the film manages to retain varying levels of connection to reality.
Meet Me Next Christmas: The Real Band at the Center of the Fictional Tale
When it comes to the story of Layla and her grand romance in ‘Meet Me Next Christmas,’ the film possesses mostly fictional origins, with Molly Haldeman and Camilla Rubis serving as the screenwriters for the project. Consequently, the premise and the characters remain works of fiction, created solely in service of an engaging holiday-themed rom-com. The film follows familiar narrative beats paired with charming plot twists that pen a story about love found in unexpected places. As a result, even the more far-fetched instances in Layla’s love story, such as the eccentric couple Javier and Natasha or the involvement of a globally popular band, become more palatable and grounded under the guise of the genre’s spell.
“There’s a sense of magic, love, and anticipation that’s happening through the whole movie,” the lead, Christina Milian, told Tudum during a discussion about the film. “You just never know who they’re going to run into or what’s going to happen next.” Yet, surprisingly, the most unexpected element within the film—which remains centric to the narrative—ends up being the film’s strongest connection to reality. While Layla’s adventure of scoring Pentatonix tickets is fiction, the band itself is a real-life a cappella group.
The Pentatonix is a beloved musical group whose real-life prominence within the Christmas song market makes them the perfect fit for the film. Furthermore, their original song ‘Meet Me Next Christmas,’ written and released in association with the film, further cements a sense of realism to their on-screen portrayal. As such, by equipping an actual well-known band to base its narrative around, the film ensures that it maintains a realistic center to a story that might otherwise demand a suspension of disbelief. Even so, despite the realism brought by The Pentatonix, the film remains fictional in nature.
The Film Strengthens Its Narrative With Winsome Characters
Like any pleasant rom-com, ‘Meet Me Next Christmas’ also builds its connection to the audience through compelling, well-established characters that offer relatable storylines. Therefore, even though Layla and Teddy’s characters aren’t based on real people, their experiences are bound to resonate with the viewers. For instance, Layla’s endlessly romantic deposition and willingness to trust fate with her life presents a kind of nature that other hopeless romantics will relate to. However, at the same time, the woman saves herself from the pitfalls of having her head in the clouds and remains grounded in reality through her realistic outlook and kind characteristics. Likewise, Teddy’s anxious persona, wherein he’s reluctant to rely on romance but still willing to fight for true love, will strike a chord with many people.
Therefore, despite the gaps in realism that Layla and Teddy’s misadventures sport, the characters retain authenticity through their narratives’ relatability. Furthermore, the quest through New York that the pair embarks on also highlights the city’s realistic beats, even if through an exaggerated version of the same. Consequently, the story depicts the chaos of Holiday shopping, the eccentricity of the residents, and even the sects of entertainment one will find throughout New York. As a result, the film equips a healthy blend of fiction and realism. Nonetheless, the scales weigh more toward the film’s fictionality, cementing most of the storyline and the characters as fictitious without any counterparts in reality.
Read More: Netflix’s Meet Me Next Christmas: Exploring All Filming Locations
