Meet Me Next Christmas (2024) review

Meet Me Next Christmas marks Christina Milina’s latest Netflix rom com. It’s an enjoyable early November Christmas movie outing that benefits from its likable cast and not being the 20th or 50th holiday film of the season.

Layla (Milian, Resort to Love) is stuck at the airport on Christmas Eve thanks to a bad storm. She’s bummed as she won’t be able to join her boyfriend, Tanner (Brendan Morgan) for the annual Pentatonix Christmas concert. Tanner seemingly becomes a distant memory when James (Kofi Siriboe, Queen Sugar) enters the first class longue. Layla and James hit it off a little too well considering Layla is in a relationship.

Equally smitten, James proposes if by some miracle Layla is single this time next year, they should meet up at the 2024 Pentatonix concert. It’ll prove that fate and the universe have destined for them to be together. Fast forward a year later for the obligatory “shock” breakup with Tanner and Layla is back on the market.

There’s no time to grieve the loss of this long-term relationship though. That wouldn’t make sense with the movie. Director Rusty Cundieff (The Chappelle Show) probably could have just skipped the clumsy breakup scene as it came off too hokey and wouldn’t make Layla look like she wasn’t really invested in it.

Layla’s best friend, Roxy (Tymika Tafari) conveniently reveals she wasn’t a big Tanner fan anyway to soften the blow of the breakup. But with Tanner out of the picture, Layla can try and rekindle that spark with James provided she can get a ticket to the sold-out concert.

Enter Teddy (Devale Ellis, Sistas), a conciergerie assigned to help her land the ticket. Teddy’s reviews haven’t been great, which was a weird angle for his character who is portrayed in all other aspects as incredibly caring, considerate and compassionate. He seems like the ideal conciergerie, but his real passion is cooking.

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Initially it feels like Meet Me Next Christmas is going to be a modern take on Serendipity, the 2001 rom com starring John Cusack and Kate Beckinsale. (Get it on Amazon). With a hopeless romantic desperately searching for signs that might not always be there on her quest to reconnect with the presumed love of her life with a little help from “the universe.”

The script, by Camilla Rubis and Molly Haldeman, is totally serviceable while feeling a little undercooked at times.

Things start out promising, with Layla and Teddy taking up different RPG-style quests to procure the ticket. Some of the tasks are more fun than others while some play out so slow that it dulls the sense of urgency Layla seemed to have early on. The biggest offender on that regard is Teddy meeting up with his cousin Jordy (Kalen Allen), who’s idea to score the tickets is by winning a drag show talent contest.

Allen provides a fun supporting spark while providing Layla and Teddy a more intimate manner of bonding. The rehearsal and the performance feels like a full act by the time both are done and ultimately didn’t add much to the story. It felt like a side quest that would have made for excellent deleted footage content.

Occasionally the Meet Me Next Christmas dialogue sounds less like real people talking and more screenwriter speak. Layla referencing her encounter with James as a perfect “meet-cute” sounded a little too meta. And Layla referring to James as “her person” as opposed to “her man” felt too in the moment of trying to be super inclusive and not offending anyone.

Pentatonix actually has an extended cameo as they follow along with Teddy’s postings on his efforts to secure a ticket. There’s a funning running gag about them spontaneously busting out into harmonies to the chagrin of their exasperated manager, Becca (Nikki Duval, Workin’ Moms).

Milian and Ellis have decent chemistry that’s passable enough for a Christmas rom com. Due to earlier pacing problems, there’s not enough time to truly establish Layla’s sudden change of heart from her yearlong obsession with James to suddenly shifting to Teddy.

Still, Meet Me Next Christmas is a rom com Christmas movie. There’s no need to do any deep dives on the script or questionable plot holes. It’s best to just casually check it out maybe while working on your shopping list or getting the decorations up as the season begins to look a lot like Christmas.

Rating: 7.5 out of 10

Photo Credit: Netflix

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