Movie Review – Hot Frosty (Mini Review)

Principal Cast : Lacey Chabert, Dustin Milligan, Katy Mixon Greer, Lauren Holly, Chrishell Stause, Joe Lo Truglio, Craig Robinson, Sherry Miller, Dan Lett, Allan Royal.
Synopsis: Widow Cathy magically brings a snowman to life. His innocence helps her heal and find love again. They bond before the holidays, but he’s doomed to melt.

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Schmaltzy mediocrity is rampant in this hodge-podge romantic seasonal film, in which Lacey Chabert’s grieving widow finds love opposite a brought-t0-life snowman (yes, really) in the form of the incredibly hot Dustin Milligan (Schitt’s Creek). Sporadically fun, occasionally funny, the rapport between Chabert and Milligan is solid although the fact the film feel too long even at a brief 90 minutes is telling. Christmas magic and all that: there’s a weird American fantasy vibe about this whole thing that mgiht not work for everyone, from the snowbound small town setting to the inordinately cloying sentimentality of the season in which the film is set, this Hallmark-adjacent effort works mainly because of the assembled screen talent and less for the production value, writing, and direction. Chabert coasts along with her typical winsome charm, a veteran of this kind of thing over her career post-Party Of Five, offering doe-eyed infatuation and almost-believe-it steely resolve in alternating amounts, while Milligan, an hugely attractive man undone by an incredibly awful hairstyle, is as buff and eye-candy easy for viewers as these kinds of movies demand. It’s all love, joy and Christmas in Hot Frosty, with a dash of spice and the best of human nature brought to bear.

Hot Frosty is a film that tries to accomplish almost too much. Part drama, part comedy, part romance, the film couples saccharine Christmas joy with a sense of magical warmth that kinda wants too hard to achieve itself, but at least offers a welcome respite for those seeking less confronting viewing. The film is harmless, and thanks to Craig Robinson and Joe Lo Truglio’s work as a pair of local town cops, has a fair share of laughs (some work, some don’t) and a simplified, uplifting message about hope and love that absolutely nails the final act. It’s perhaps telling that the best laugh in the whole film is a meta-reference to Mean Girls, in which Chabert notices Lindsay Lohan on a television screen, remarking that she looks like “a girl I knew in high school” – and boy did I chuckle. But a film relying on external references for its best material isn’t a strong one, and while I did enjoy Hot Frosty for its cheery disposition (Lauren Holly’s turn leading a gaggle of voracious town cougars all lusting after Milligan is pretty funny), the film is forgettable in so many ways I doubt it’ll become a repeat viewing for me. Admittedly I’m not the demographic this movie is aimed at, so I acknowledge my review may be biased heavily against the softly-softly goings-on here; if the Hallmark-romance movie genre is your kind of thing, you’ll get a kick out of Hot Frosty, but it’s hardly a seasonal classic.

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