Netflix’s Falling for Christmas is a terrifying, confusing, hilarious film. I can not get enough of that

In love with Christmas, Netflix’s celebratory film, features almost as much fall as Christmas. When rich girl Sierra (Lindsay Lohan) is proposed on a snowy mountain, she slips backwards on her skis and falls off a steep ledge.

It’s the kind of fall that should lead to years of rehabilitation, if not death, but in the Christmas movie cinema universe only leaves Sierra unable to remember who she is.

She keeps falling and jumping over a chair throughout the film when she’s startled by a raccoon at the window of the humble mountain cabin she’s been rescued to by Hot Local Dad Jake (joy‘s Chord Overstreet). They think they’re trying to make all these pitfalls look good, but the stunt work, like in the movies, never does.

Combine the random raccoon, seedy slapstick and nagging Netflix product placement and Feverything for christmas is a mess. Oh, and it’s the perfect Christmas movie, too.

Journalist Jonathan Dean tweeted: “Seen the new Lindsay Lohan – In love with Christmas. Terrible. Nobody in the film wants to be in the film. Terribly staged, no idea how to tell a story. S*** story anyway. Stunning prop choices. act subhuman. Highly recommended. Haven’t laughed like that in years. 5/5.”

When The IndependentAs a resident expert on pathetic Christmas movies (see here), I understand the appeal of a festive Netflix romcom. There are the funny (A Christmas Prince), the cool (vacation) and the WTF-I-just-watched (A knight before Christmas). In love with Christmas sits somewhere in the middle. It doesn’t try to push the boat out in any way (like most Christmas romcoms, it’s aggressively straight), the dialogue is stilted, and the supporting characters are gossip (Snowflake). It’s a Christmas cavalcade of clichés: spoiled heiresses, dead mothers, and seedy CGI.

But despite all his mistakes, In love with Christmas has a special feature: the Lohan factor. We’ve witnessed the actor’s journey from child star to tabloid furore, court appearances and addiction struggles. There’s a lot of goodwill towards Lohan – we want to see her happy and back to doing what she was once good at.

The movie, with Sierra’s red hair and mean girls Easter eggs, seems determined to play with that nostalgia. It might not be an Oscar-winning performance from Lohan (honestly, I think Saoirse Ronan would have trouble making such a weak script look good), but it’s best not to be overly critical of Netflix romcoms.

In love with Christmas is like the fall of the same name: appalling in theory, but amusing slapstick and fun when you play along.