The unlikely Christmas movie that has mums absolutely hooked

Netflix’s new festive flick has just dropped - and it’s strictly off limits for the kids. Yo ho ho!

First there was hot priest and the hot rabbi - now meet the hot handyman. And he’s ready to unwrap his gifts.  

‘Tis the season where nights are spent cuddling up on the lounge with the kids, and watching wholesome Christmas movies where Santa, elves and reindeer deliver laughs and all the right warm and fuzzy feelings. 

Well, ladies, Netflix has just dropped a new festive flick and let’s just say it’s a very special gift for the mums only. 

Yep, that’s right. The Merry Gentlemen is here and it’s the film you’ll want to watch after the kids are tucked up in bed. 

So, what’s it about? In a nutshell, Christmas and strippers, er male review dancers. Confused? Let us explain …

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Image: Netflix.

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The unique Christmas film

The Merry Gentlemen follows the story of Broadway dancer, Ashley (Britt Robertson) who travels back to her small-town home for the holidays, only to discover her parents’ music-themed bar is riddled with debt and about to close.  

There, she meets carpenter/handyman, Luke (Chad Michael Murray), who we very soon learn looks far better changing a leaky tap shirtless than with clothes on. And not surprisingly he’s also a nice guy with a broken heart. 

Using her own choreography talents and the ‘physical’ assets of Luke and other muscly men in the local town, Ashley stages an all-male Christmas-themed revue to raise money to save the bar.  

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My thoughts...

Let's be honest. This one won’t win any screenplay or acting awards, and the sentimentality is laid on thicker and sickeningly sweeter than layers of trifle, so you feel like you're watching the Hallmark Channel. But for light-hearted festive viewing, it manages to satisfy that appetite.  

The drawcard here, or rather the main thirst trap, is Chad Michael Murray, the noughties teen heartthrob whose chiselled face adorned many teenage bedroom walls thanks to his roles in One Tree Hill, Riverdale, Gilmore Girls and Dawson’s Creek. 

He’s now 43, and still a scrumptious festive treat - even if his character’s blonde dye job should have been left in his One Tree Hill days. But hey, his locks, as lustrous as they are, are not the main attraction, are they ladies? 

And he knows it, too. Knowing his pull, the actor created his own shirtless calendar to celebrate the film’s launch, which we get a peek at here. And for that generous offering, we thank him very, very much. 

There's another more wholesome dose of 80s nostalgia in The Merry Gentlemen, with Ashley’s bar-owner father played by Michael Gross, who was everyone's favourite TV dad, Steven Keaton, on Family Ties. Hearing his voice is balm to a millennial child’s soul.  

While the dancers’ moves and physical ‘attributes’ show a lot of effort in the gym and rehearsal studio (especially for Michael Murray, who never danced professionally before), we can only describe it as a bit of raunchy fun, rather than hot-under-the-collar titillation. The Christmas influence makes for a very diluted homage to Magic Mike, hence its PG rating.  

Being a country-town based rom com, there are more than a few cringe moments that generate some second-hand embarrassment, but they might be on purpose, and everyone’s in on the joke. Or at least we hope they are.  

Either way, this festive offering is a jolly-good time and will leave you with the warm and fuzzy feeling that a Christmas movie should. And that’s a gift we’re happy to have under our tree this year. 

The Merry Gentlemen, rated PG, is now screening on Netflix.

Originally published as The unlikely Christmas movie that has mums absolutely hooked