The Knight Before Christmas Review

November 23, 2019 at 4:30pm
By Jason Stettner

The Knight Before Christmas is a Netflix Original film that is very much your typical over the top romantic and sappy story, but it does some things to make it feel fresh. This really doesn’t feel like anything new, but they certainly embrace that element and have fun with it. That’s a lot of what this is, going all out to make it somewhat more memorable and at times rather funny.

Narrative wise a mystical sorceress transports this medieval knight named Sir Cole (Josh Whitehouse) to the modern times. He’s been given a blanket quest, and has no idea what to do. Everything is strange, and much of the charm is him being a man out of time. Along the way in this holiday season he ends up meeting and connecting with Brooke (Vanessa Hudgens). She’s a single teacher that has a nice large house with a guest house attached. She’s got free time which she spends with family and volunteering in the community. Her sister and niece do have a large role in this one family wise.

There’s a certain charm to this knight she “bumps” into quite literally and they go from there. Again, without spoiling aspects of this they go loud at moments which are shocking and funny. It’s very much an appropriate for all ages type of film, just has some fun moments that will surprise anyone viewing it which adds to the charm. He’s definitely a knightly individual, the chivalry seemed to charm my sister as we viewed it together.

The acting was fine here, Hudgens is a good calming lead that’s dealing with someone that appears crazy. Whitehouse is the charming knight, and fits the role well. There’s a good use of old language, and smart communication in getting him caught up to the modern times in some ways.

They use the spread of time well, and it’s a story that I don’t think is particularly fresh but they have fun with the narrative. That’s a big part of Christmas films these days, if you’re not too original you need to lean into that and provide an enjoyable atmosphere.

There was a sense of heroics, and chivalry for what was a fine viewing. I didn’t mind watching this, had some laughs and enjoyed the calmer romantic attitude. It wasn’t an over the top experience in terms of the romance, but lightly worked on it throughout which was nice and felt earned as it progressed.

The Conclusion

The Knight Before Christmas is a generally fine romantic comedy that has sappy moments while still being an enjoyable and funny time. It’s nothing too new, I feel like I’ve viewed this sort of concept before but they modernize it well and don’t hold back. Some of the best moments were the out of time segments, they brought some laughs. There was a good scene at the diner, a few with the blatant product placement with Amazon Alexa and some other points too.

It was a fine viewing, I’d likely sit through it again. It’s not going to be a classic Christmas film for me, but I wouldn’t mind including it in holiday viewings. It also might be good for an audience that enjoys sappier or generally chivalry filled movies that bring an uplifting style. It captures the spirit of the holidays well, and adds a knight element to it as well.

The Knight Before Christmas Review at Home with Streamed Viewing
Content Access was Provided by Netflix

Rating Overall: 6.0