Holiday Crashers
Reviewed by L. Sue
Admittedly, in the year 2024, who isn’t looking for a little
fun and distraction? I know I am, hence we subject ourselves to these Christmas
movies ostensibly for the benefit of you, the reader, but I’d be lying if I
said I didn’t get anything out of temporarily residing in an alternate reality.
Picture this: two adrift millennials are working dead-end jobs at a print shop.
They see all these fabulous invitations being printed for all kinds of
glamorous holiday parties, and spunky Bri has a thought. Why not swipe one of
the invitations from the shred pile for themselves and live the life of the
rich and famous? Prim and proper Toni is a little more skeptical. Isn’t this
wrong? Isn’t this lying to people and possibly themselves? Bri, ever the
dreamer, thinks this is just some fun, food, dancing, and distraction. Carpe
Diem! Party crashing is harmless, and she will most definitely shred the
invitation… right after they use it.
So, off to party number one, a garden fundraiser, where Toni
is still a little hesitant. Won’t the people know she doesn’t belong among
them? But once a few canapes are eaten and some champagne (not prosecco!) is
drunk, they get into their characters. Bri is a big-time financier, and Toni
is… a doula. For someone who was initially against the whole plan, Toni really
gets into it, giving (questionable?) birthing tips to anyone within earshot and
both singing and dancing with everyone. The life of the party, these two, not
at all wallflowers, really embracing the carpe diem sentiment. I guess pro tip
one in crashing anything: act like you belong. I feel this was covered in
Wedding Crashers, feel free to confirm or deny this in the comments. The
problem is a little thing called a slippery slope – and we are promptly treated
to a party montage. What was maybe going to be one party crash turns into 3...
4... 5 parties where they pretend to be pet therapists who can commune with the
dead, NASA astronauts, a chocolatier, and even an Olympic Ski Instructor. No
job is out of the realm of possibility for these two; with a little imagination
and determination, you can pretend to be anyone!
After a couple of weeks of party crashing, Toni remarks how
easy the lying comes to her, and that kinda scares her. But not enough to stop
going to one more party. But this is the party where the party crashing stops
(and we’re only about a third into the movie, admittedly a little bait and
switch from the title). But we got to get the drama to have the break - and
spoiler, this break is big. Toni has been working at the print shop since she
had a panic attack on day one of her bar exam, feeling that she was living the
life her dad wanted, and not necessarily her own. Her dad being one of those
embarrassing lawyers with the ads and the benches that scream ambulance chaser.
Toni is proud of her dad but embarrassed by the commercials and takes the time
while eating fresh-baked Christmas cookies to tell him this.
At this last Christmas party, Toni runs into an old law
school classmate who knows the real her (not the made-up persona she’s told
countless random party-goers). Latisha herself is living the life that Toni had
probably planned for - married, about to have her first baby, and working in
Mergers and Acquisitions for some big-shot company run by Justin (his last name
escapes me but it isn’t really important). Latisha was attempting to have some
holiday fun before the baby comes..but surprise! She goes into labor at the
party and asks a huge favor of Toni. Would she help Justin with the acquisition
of the motor company? Toni had already let it slip that she suspects the motor
company will be facing a huge class action lawsuit soon, conveniently leaving
out that it is her dad who is the one filing the class action lawsuit against
the motor company for defective seat belts.
Latisha and Toni interned together back in law school, and
Latisha knew Toni was more than capable. Faced with a self imposed Christmas
deadline for the company acquisition…and Latisha starting maternity leave like
right then. What is a CEO to do? Justin trusts Latisha and Latisha trusts Toni…
so sold! He’s willing to have Toni be a legal consultant for this huge merger.
Why don’t she and Bri come up to his company chalet in Vermont and they can go
over the deal? The fact that Toni is not a licensed lawyer is just a bump that
ever-persistent Bri is like can totally be overcome. More importantly, when’s the
last time Bri’s gone on vacation? She is also motivated to see more of the
valet Vinny that she met at the first party crash, and who’s handling the
transportation needs of Justin’s company at the Vermont chalet. Surely Toni
can’t say no to a woman in labor and her best friend needing a ski vacation?
Although obviously, Toni will have to come clean to Justin about not being a
licensed lawyer. If not for her sake, then for us the audience.
But then they get up to the ski chalet. With the
ornament-making, s'mores eating, and hot chocolate drinking… Toni couldn’t find
the time or the words to tell Justin that she isn’t an actual lawyer. What Toni
does manage to make time for is vetting the motor company Justin is interested
in acquiring. Now, I’m no lawyer, but isn’t there some conflict of interest,
some ethics code that is being violated, to know about the class action lawsuit
while working for the acquiring company? I mean, I’ve watched enough TV and
movie lawyers to suspect that what Toni is doing is wrong, and not just because
she lacks the credentials. Oddly enough, while Toni may not be an Olympic skier
or a chocolatier… lawyering she can do in her sleep, and apparently also while
on a retreat vacation.
In the meantime, Vinny and Bri are enjoying the sights and
sounds of Vermont, going to a “life-altering puppet show” that I think actually
is life-altering, just maybe not the way the creator intended. Some of the
randos that Toni and Bri partied with over the past couple of weeks are also at
the retreat—starting to ask some awkward questions like, won’t she ski with
them? To which Toni, having completely embraced the con, tells them she’s going
on some black diamond slope and would the beginners like to join her? Way to
double down on the lie, knowing they wouldn’t take up the offer, they would
stick to the bunny slopes, and Toni can slip away to take a nap and eat some
chips, and Justin and his paralegal wouldn’t be any wiser. Justin is really
enjoying spending time with Toni and likes that he doesn’t want to talk about
work with her, even though Toni does try to bring work up several items, if not
outright just blurt that she’s not a lawyer. Justin’s backstory, as told by his assistant,
is one of his exes tried to take his money and run, so Justin isn’t a fan of
lying. Who is? Even the liar Toni isn’t a fan of lying; she’s just got caught
up in this fantasy and can’t bring herself to tell Justin the truth, and the
longer she goes…the harder it is for Toni to tell Justin the truth.
Shockingly, the whole break plays out with a twist. While we
have been meticulously following Toni’s lie, it turns out Vinny had been lying
to Bri. Bri thought Vinny was just some lowly valet and trusted him enough to
tell him the truth about Toni, but Vinny had already known the two were party
crashers, for the simple fact that they were having the most fun. When Bri
learned that Vinny wasn’t the valet but the owner of the company, she loses it.
It’s bad timing for Toni, who had just kissed Justin under the moonlit winter
night, and then was interrupted by the flustered Bri. For all her bravado,
underneath it all, it was apparently Bri who perhaps felt the most out of
place. Finding out that Vinny wasn’t someone like her just really burst the
bubble. In the meantime, for the remainder of the retreat, Toni manages to
avoid Justin, never getting the chance to mention the truth about her lawyer
credentials; all the while still managing to dig into the motor company. Justin
and she agree to meet the following week when they’re back from the retreat,
giving enough time for two critical plot developments. One is regarding the
motor company: Toni finds out from an old law school classmate who interned at
the motor company that there were internal memos saying the company knew the
seat belts were defective. Again, we question the ethics and legality of some
ex-employee just talking to her old classmate, but we don’t watch these
Christmas movies for their legal advice and adherence to conflict of interest
or such small things as client confidentiality. Number two is the biggie, and
that is the legal assistant who’s been suspicious of Toni learns that she
didn’t actually pass the bar and tells Justin this big news. At the arranged
meeting, very professional Toni gives up the info regarding the lying
corporation but only really hears Justin basically firing her and wanting
nothing to do with her. Toni does have a comeback - she was swept up in this
idea she had created, a fantasy life that was better than her current reality.
She somewhat reasons to her dad that since she didn’t charge Justin any money
for her consulting, how bad is the lie really?
Well, obviously the lie was big. And the idea that crashing
parties was harmless also turns out to not be entirely true, and in a twist,
the people who were harmed the most were the crashers themselves. Who hasn’t
thought about a different life, imagined how things might have turned out
differently if only different choices were made? Most of us limit this
imagining to just that, at most maybe a vision board if you’re into that kind
of thing, but to actually go out and crash parties, pretending to be someone
else, just to escape your own reality? We applaud the gumption. So, with about
10 minutes left in the movie, it’s kinda where you’d expect reality to be -
Justin and Toni going their separate ways. But as this is a Hallmark Christmas
movie, never fear, we have 10 minutes to correct course and boy howdy do they.
Somehow Vinny and Bri get back together, and indeed we flash forward one year later to their wedding. No longer working a dead-end job, Bri is an event planner, what she was born to do. Turns out in all the deception, the barista she was giving critiques to regarding the hot chocolate stand was THE caterer to the rich and famous, and helped Bri see that she had more to offer than she thought. Having someone believe in her, Bri found the courage to believe in herself. And Toni, who after a lifetime of hating the ambulance-chasing commercials, joins her dad in one as she passed the exam, and is happy being a lawyer, I guess? I think she really missed her calling with the pet therapist, but I only just spent 90 minutes with her, so what do I know? So with their careers on track and Bri’s wedding, all that remains is for Justin and Toni to make up. By starting over and reintroducing themselves. Cue the end credits, it’s a wrap. So, we didn’t really explore the mental health aspects of panic attacks, the monotony of dead-end jobs endured for a paycheck, nor the very hard lifelong lesson to know your worth. But hey, in the end, these girls got their guy, so cheers!
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