Netflix is going all out with the lusty content in 2024. First Hot Frosty, now this amalgamation of Magic Mike and every Hallmark Christmas romance trope known to mankind. Girl moves back to hometown after the big city fails her? Check. Meet cute with a local handyman of sorts involving some contrived Christmas decoration scenario? Check and check. Predictable isn’t necessarily bad if the movie is able to bring the charm, and while The Merry Gentlemen won’t be the best Christmas romance you see this year, it does have some things going for it.
Everything’s all great in Ashley’s (Britt Robertson) world: she’s a professional dancer on Broadway, and has been able to do what she absolutely loves for years. But all this changes in a split second. The producer informs her that she’s been fired and while she wasn’t told why, Ashley assumes it’s because she’s aged out of the role. Dejected and down in the dumps, she decides to head home to Sycamore and reconsider what the future holds.
When she gets back, she finds out that her parents’ bar The Rhythm Room is in danger of closing down because they haven’t been able to pay their rent. In a bid to save the place, she convinces the landlord that the bar’s edgy new act – basically Christmas themed Chippendale stuff – will draw in the crowds like the old days. Luke (Chad Michael Murray), the reliable guy who’s been fixing up all the plumbing issues in The Rhythm Room, gets drawn into this whole situation against his will, but decides to help Ashley because she inspires him.
Watching Chad Michael Murray strut around shirtless and body roll on stage wasn’t on my 2024 bingo card, but I’m not mad about it. In fact, he’s actually one of the best things about this movie. There’s a reason he was the teen heartthrob of the 2000s. He’s not the best dancer to ever exist, but he’s having fun with the role, and he does bring sexyback somewhat. Unfortunately, there’s a bit of a mismatch with Robertson, which I attribute to the 9 year age difference between them. The pair are trying their best to conjure some spark between them, and I see at times, if I squint real hard, but I wish the chemistry was more combustible, especially in a movie that’s trying to sell us on the frisky.
The character arcs are fine. Luke’s distrustful of city girls because his ex-wife uprooted them to Sycamore before changing her mind and leaving him behind as she went back to city life. So we can understand why he’s hesitant to go all-in with Ashley, and give her the capacity to turn around and break his heart again. Ashley is more of a blank slate, where there seems to some attraction to Luke, but we don’t know enough of her romantic past to understand why she’s tiptoeing around the situation.
As for the dance scenes, they’re nothing to write home about, but the cast seem to be having a blast, and that was kind of fun to watch. There was an attempt to create different Christmas-themed dances, so A plus for effort there. I like how inclusive the dance team was – different builds and even age groups – and it was heartwarming to see a non-dancer like Luke admit to the joy he gets from dancing with the guys. The Merry Gentlemen brings the merry and the eye candy, and that’s good enough for me.
REVIEW SCORE – 3/5
