It’s absolutely awful when you forget someone’s name. But it’s even worse when you forget your own name.
After hitting her head in a skiing accident, Sierra Belmont can’t remember who she is. She doesn’t know her name, where she’s from or that she’s an incredibly rich hotel heiress.
Luckily, Sierra is taken in by Jake Russell, owner of the North Star Lodge, who first found Sierra after her accident.
Jake, his daughter (Avy), and his mother-in-law (Alejandra), are some of the kindest people in town. But lately, they’ve fallen on hard times.
Just two Christmases ago, Jake’s wife (Avy’s mother and Alejandra’s daughter), Carla, passed away. And while Jake’s managed to keep their family afloat, their business hasn’t been as fortunate.
Jake wonders if it might be better to lose the Lodge. After all, it’s full of sad memories.
Then again, maybe it’s time to create some new memories with a woman who just so happens to have none.
Jake, Avy and Alejandra are good people who treat Sierra and everyone else they meet with kindness and respect. Even when Sierra proves to be hopelessly inept at simple household chores, they show patience and teach her how to do things for herself. And when Jake snaps at Sierra in frustration, he apologizes for his harsh words.
Fearing that his family is still grieving from Carla’s death, Jake struggles to move on himself. However, after Alejandra and Avy assure him that they’re both OK, he allows himself to heal. We also learn that even though the lodge is going out of business, Jake’s still spent his own money to help dozens of others over the years.
When Sierra starts to feel worthless and unwanted (since nobody has come searching for her yet), Jake and his family reaffirm her value.
Sierra and her dad are close, but she fears that if she tells him she doesn’t want to work in the hotel industry (she suspects he made up a job for her), she’ll hurt his feelings. However, by the end of the film, they come to the understanding that Sierra needs to do things for herself and make her own way in the world.
Sierra acts a little entitled at the beginning of the film, but her tune changes once she realizes that she’s not as capable of taking care of herself as she thought. Sierra goes out of her way to help Jake get the funding he needs to save the North Star Lodge. When Avy admits she sometimes talks to a picture of her mom, Sierra reassures her that it’s a beautiful thing.
Many townsfolk help when a friend is in need. An ice fisherman helps a lost skier find his way home. (Later, when the fisher is wrongfully arrested for poaching, the skier defends him, calling him a hero.) A father reassures his daughter that he loves her and that her mother would be proud of her. A little girl makes a Christmas “wish” for her dad instead of herself.
A little girl is told not to share her Christmas wish or it won’t come true. A Santa-like figure hears this and seemingly uses magic to make her wish come true. (A sleigh the family couldn’t afford shows up at their hotel. And the man conveniently appears to guide them when they are searching for a friend.) Someone says Christmas is the “time for miracles.” Someone calls coffee the “nectar of the gods.” An angel figurine is used as a tree-topper. People sing the hymn “Joy to the World” at a tree-lighting ceremony.
A couple dances and kisses. Jake and Sierra decide not to kiss since they don’t know if she has a significant other or not.
A woman uncomfortably fastens an extra button on her nightgown after someone calls it a “granny gown.” (In other scenes, she wears slightly revealing silk nightgowns.) Sierra wears a dress that shows some cleavage. We see people in swimsuits. A man uses a cloth to dab out a stain on a woman’s breast.
[Spoiler warning] Tad, Sierra’s boyfriend-turned-fiancé, asks a man to be his date for New Year’s Eve after he and Sierra break up.
Sierra and another character fall off mountain cliffs. Both are ultimately OK, but they take several tumbles on their way down and Sierra loses consciousness (and her memory) after hitting her head on a tree. (We later learn she suffered a concussion.)
An ice fisher throws his tackle box at another man in fear. Some of the lures get stuck in the man’s face; when he notices them, he faints.
A man talks about roadkill and tells another man to use a hatchet to hunt squirrels. Later, he is arrested for poaching.
People tumble and fall throughout the film, but it’s played for comedy, and nobody is seriously injured.
A man nearly hits several people with his vehicle (and runs over the foot of a valet). Sierra initially fears Jake, stating that she won’t follow him to a “murder cabin in the woods.”
There are three misuses of God’s name. We hear one use of the British crudity “bloody” and a use of the term “geez.”
Adults drink champagne and wine at special events.
Tad, Sierra’s fiancé, is often rude and condescending. And while his attitude is played for laughs, he’s obnoxiously self-absorbed. (He notes that his social media followers love drama.)
The Belmont’s hotel staff fails to notice or report that Sierra is missing until Mr. Belmont returns from a business trip.
Someone spits out their drink. A man accidentally bumps into and spills coffee on a woman. A woman is splashed with water from a regurgitating toilet.
We’ve mentioned the past couple of years how Netflix seems to be homing in on the Hallmark Channel’s monopoly on Christmas rom coms. And this year is no different.
This holiday flick stars former Disney darling Lindsay Lohan and former Glee star Chord Overstreet. And for the most part, it’s about as sweet as sugarplums.
There’s a nice message here about how families can heal even after a tragic death. And we’re treated to not just one, but two demonstrations of strong father-daughter relationships.
But there are a couple of bumps along the narrative ski slope, too. In the final scenes of the film, a character decides to enter into a same-sex relationship. And we also hear a handful of misuses of God’s name.
However, families could easily skip the aforementioned scenes or turn the film off before it reaches that point. And if so, they’ll find a nice heart-warming flick just in time for the holidays.
Emily studied film and writing when she was in college. And when she isn’t being way too competitive while playing board games, she enjoys food, sleep, and geeking out with her husband indulging in their “nerdoms,” which is the collective fan cultures of everything they love, such as Star Wars, Star Trek, Stargate and Lord of the Rings.
