The Jenkins Family Christmas

The Jenkins Family Christmas (2021) - BET

One thing I can say about my people at BET and TVOne is that, at least in regards to their Christmas movies, they show no interest in following the tried and true Hallmark / Lifetime formula.  No my friends, their movies tend to focus on a love of Jesus and lots and lots and lots of family melodrama.  With more melodrama mixed in.  For exhibit A we offer up 'The Jenkins Family Christmas’.  For starters it takes place in Atlanta, so snow is completely out of the question down here.  And having been in Atlanta when it has snowed, the last thing you want any of these people having to deal with, on any level, is snow.  They don’t handle it well. 

Anyway, it's Christmas, the first Christmas the Jenkins family will experience without their pastor father, and the matriarch of the Jenkins family, Beneatta (Regina Taylor), has invited her family down to experience the holidays.  Knock knock on the door, Beneatta answers and standing there is the lovely Brianna (Tammy Townsend), bearing a gift basket and hitting Beneatta with news that she’s her sister from another mother and she just wants to meet her family.  Beneatta doesn’t handle this news well.  Get used to Beneatta reacting poorly, sometimes violently, to things she does not want to hear.

Surprise half-sister rudely dispatched, it’s time to meet the rest of the family.  Oldest daughter Simone (Ashley Love-Mills) arrives, but she didn’t bring her husband as he has cheated on her, in their marital bed no less, and the marriage looks to be over.  However she can’t tell her mom because her mom loves her soon to be ex-husband, and mom would not react well to this news. 

Next to arrive is younger brother Kenny (Anthony Chatmon II) who brings his boyfriend Logan (Derek Chadwick) to the family gathering, but mom has not accepted the fact that her son is gay and Kenny, much to Logan’s pain, is afraid to tell her that he’s gay because mom would not react well to that news.  Later they both take their shirts off, because of course they do.  Also, Logan is constantly referred to as 'White Boy', in case we were to forget he is a white boy.  A character did explain to us later that she called him this so he would know he was seen.  What also helps him be seen, I think, is calling him by his actual name, but I'm not a white boy so what the hell do I know?

Auntie Beverly (Kim Coles) is the last to arrive, along with her daughter LaTrice (Bailey Bass) and Beneatta seems to HATE her younger sister.  Absolutely hates her.  Beverly has no bad news to give Beneatta because her mere existence is bad news to Beneatta.

Also there is a lawyer floating around who has given Beneatta the news that her late father left the family a little extra inheritance, if they ALL gather for this holiday.  That also includes half-sister Brianna, but as you might’ve figured, Beneatta didn’t react well to that news. 

Beneatta’s husband and the new church pastor James (Robert Gossett) knows his wife is mental and tries to guide her through these various family issues she’s resisting, but Beneatta doesn’t react well to her husband trying to help her.  So desperate is half-sister Brianna to attempt to connect to the family she wish she knew, she shows up at church, and with the blessing of pastor James tells the entire congregation how she wants to meet her new family.  Beneatta doesn’t react well to that.  In fact she physically attacks poor Brianna.  Beneatta is certifiably nuts.  To Beneatta’s credit, she does realize she stepped over the line this time and tries to apologize to Brianna, but attempted murder has convinced Brianna that the Jenkins family is probably a family she should have no parts of.

At Christmas dinner it all comes to a head as the entire family has had enough of Beneatta.  Everybody, including her children, go OFF on her.  Simone has no husband, Kenny loves Logan, Beverly is sick of getting verbally abused, and Pastor James lets his wife know that this is nothing that Jesus would do.  While Beneatta did not react well to this, she did take it, absorb it, realize that she was actually just mad that her late father was a human and not a god, and she has to try to make amends.  Which she does, including receiving forgiveness from Brianna who she assaulted and all is right… At Christmas!

Oh and there is no inheritance, but I figured as much from the start.  A total ‘One Tin Soldier’ ruse.  Ain’t no riches under that rock. 

One thing notable about The Jenkins Family Christmas is that it was directed by Ms. Robin Givens.  I don't know if Ms. Givens has ever directed before, but she seemed to handle this chaos quite well I think.  As we mentioned before this is not your typical Hallmarky romantic movie as we had no snow, no cookie baking, I don't remember any hot cocoa drinking, no tree decorating, nobody got a man who didn't already have one when the movie started, no mistletoe, no orphan kids... none of that stuff.  We did have a choir sing us some Christmas songs, and we did have Jesus, who we sometimes forget is the actual reason for the season.

Is the movie any good?  Well, it's not terrible.  I mean I was somewhat entertained by this nonsense so there's that.  Regina Taylor is essentially a super villain in this movie that even had Thanos hanging his head, but similar to Darth Vadar in Return of the Jedi she couldn't stay true to the game had to seek redemption.  Not that I was on her side in any of this but always be true to yourself my grandma used to tell me.  

So if you're a little tired of closing cookie factories and near miss kisses, we offer to you The Jenkins Family Christmas which instead gives you a healthy dose of Jesus, triple the family melodrama and shirtless gay dudes.  Merry Christmas!