Lets be honest, sometimes Thanksgiving really sucks. It’s a day that you spend fighting with family, eating too much and really trying to figure out how you’re related to some of the people that you’re sitting across from in the room. Holidays can be a headache.
I feel like Hallmark realized that we all needed a moment to laugh and smile and that’s why they chose Catch Me If You Claus for their Thanksgiving day movie. It was everything that writer needed to end a day that I dread each and every year. Yes, Thanksgiving may not be great, but Hallmark made me close out the day laughing.
Dare I say that Catch Me If You Claus melted my Grinch heart? Cause well, it did. I felt all the Christmas cheer.
Now I will be honest, I love Italia Ricci and Luke MacFarlane, so I am a little biased. But texting with my fellow Hallmark aficionados, I realized that didn’t come into play. Nope. Other people loved it too.
WHAT IT’S ABOUT: ’Twas the night before Christmas at Avery Quinn’s (Italia Ricci) when her slumber’s disrupted by someone who breaks in. She creeps through the house to check out the clatter and spies a Santa-clad man (Luke Macfarlane) she thought would be fatter. Avery jumps into action and ties him up tight, but he pleads for his freedom so he can finish the night. He claims to be Chris, Santa’s own son, who’s got to get going and finish his run. His dad will be angry and kids will be sad, if they rise Christmas morning with no gifts to be had. Avery thinks he’s the Santa Crook who’s been on the news and is bound and determined to not let him loose. The aspiring news anchor gets a great thought – she’ll take him to the cops and tell them he’s caught! Solving this crime wave will boost her career, but soon Avery and Chris will have much to fear. A series of mishaps have them take flight from the police and the bad guys searching all night. Avery and Chris go place to place as Avery begins to crack this big case. The two work together to figure it out and soon Avery sees she has nothing to doubt. Chris is who he claims and the pair slowly bonds and each helps the other to keep pressing on. Will Avery’s news story make it to air, or will she be late and be in despair? Will Chris make his deadline and deliver all gifts, or will this Christmas be one that gets missed?
WHAT IT’S GIVING: Christmas cheer with a side of no matter how old you get, no one wants to disappoint your parents.
STANDOUT PERFORMANCE: Italia Ricci and Luke MacFarlane are both magical in Catch Me If You Claus. They made me believe in Santa Claus again.
ALL THE THOUGHTS: I remember being a kid and I believed so much in Santa Claus. I didn’t care what all of the kids in my class said, Santa was real. Well, that was until I heard my Dad in the middle of the night building a bunk bed. The next day, I saw a tag on it that said it was from Santa and I knew everyone was right.
Santa wasn’t real. And yes, before you judge me telling my story, understand it will play into this review. Patience.
As we grow up, we become entranced with our goals. This isn’t a bad thing, but we spend so much time with our careers and trying to achieve goals, that we find ourselves forgetting about the wonderment of being a kid. In Catch Me If You Claus, Italia Ricci’s character, Avery, has definitely fallen into this trap. She is only worried about her career and stepping out of her Mom’s shadow.
Avery wants to be an anchor. Her Mom has been one for years and is famous. She doesn’t want to use her Mom’s name to achieve this though. She wants to do this on her own and that is something that we can admire. Yes, she wants her Mom to be proud of her, but even more than that, she wants to be proud of herself.
From the beginning, you can’t help but be invested in Avery’s goals, because she’s finding the strength that I think we all want to have. She’s got every reason to be discouraged, but that’s not going to be something she allows herself to be. Even after loosing the weekend anchor job, she won’t give up. She’s going to be what she wants to be.
The movie takes place in Ohio and there is political scandal, Santa thefts, kidnapping, escape, and more. With so much going on, you would think that pacing would be off, but you would be wrong. The way that every scene rolls into the next so easily, is what keeps you engaged and not looking away.
That and performances.
But we’ll get there. In the movie, Avery catches Santa in her house and thinks that he’s a thief. There is a string of robberies going on and she does think that she’s caught the man police are looking for. She ends up tying him up with garland and lights. Now, where I get the Christmas of all of this – I look at it and keep thinking how are his hands not burning or hot AF because of the lights being on.
Santa is trying to convince her that he is who he says he is. Even though she doesn’t believe him, she finds herself doing everything that he asks. It’s great to watch though, because that’s how their adventure evolves. One (it is me – I am one) starts to wonder, what adventures I am missing out on.
I think that the greatness of this movie is the fun of it. It’s the way that Chris (Santa, Santa’s son, The Dude that she ties up) really starts to inherit his job as Santa and come alive by remembering everyones stories. It’s his sidekick elf trying to find him and no one wanting to tell Santa. It’s the moments that they are in with the acting troop and him talking to all the older men about the pivotal gift.
Do you know your pivotal gift? The one you can’t forget. The one that changed who you are? I know mine. Until this movie I never thought about it, but now I can respect the fact that it exists and it is a part of who I am.
MacFarlane, as Santa, made me believe in Santa again. Remember how my belief in Santa was ruined by bunkbeds? Well, with this movie I started to believe again. I know that Santa isn’t a person, but maybe what’s important about him is the idea of him. Santa is the spirit – the people who give without wanting in return, the people that don’t let you down, the people that make you feel alive. Santa isn’t just at Christmas.
Santa lives in all of us, in the spirit of Christmas, and that can’t be ruined.
Now, yes, in the movie, Santa is a human. But it’s the way that MacFarlane plays him that you can’t help but love who Santa can or could be.
Over the course of the movie, you see Avery (Ricci) evolve and her mind open to possibilities, all while chasing the biggest story of her career. You see Santa/Chris reminding us all of what Christmas can be. You’ve got a steamy scene in a truck. You’ve got standing up to parents and embracing your destiny.
You’ve got joy.
And I think all of us could use that in our live.
Catch Me If You Claus is an instant Hallmark classic. Be sure to catch it when it plays in your area.
CHRISTMAS CHEER FACTOR: 🎄🎄🎄🎄.5