Jingle Bell Heist: It's definitely better than its title, but how much better?

0:09Ho, ho, ho, hello and welcome back to Bah Humbug, the Christmas movies podcast that can't think of anything more Christmassy than stealing from a shop, apparently. Hello everybody, I'm Helen O 'Hara, I am your host and I am here today to be talking about Jingle Bell Heist, the new Netflix romantic comedy crime caper, I guess, which stars Olivia Holt and Connor Swindles. And joining me to discuss it today is a man who knows more about Christmas than Santa Claus himself. It's Amon Warman. How are you doing, Amon? I'm doing okay. I'm doing okay. How are you? I am okay. I am so ready to stop and just lounge for Christmas.

0:54I am not saying I'm flying on fumes, but it's pretty close. How about you? Almost in Christmas mode. There's a couple of things yet to do this week. By the end of this week, I should be fully in Christmas mode. The tree is up. The presents have not been bought yet because I'm a very last minute guy. Oh, wow. You are living on the edge. I know, I know, it's bad. Shockingly, it is December 16th as we record this. Normally, I would have heard the Mariah Carey Christmas song multiple times. For some reason this year, I have not. It is extremely weird. I would have heard it in the wild all the time.

1:37Yeah. I have not heard it this year. I don't know what is going on. It's a bit freaky. Maybe that is like the universe's punishment for not having done your Christmas shopping yet. Like it is denying you the great pleasure of all I want for Christmas. That's why. Maybe. Maybe. So we're here today to talk about Jingle Bell Heist, which, as I said, stars Olivia Holtz. Sophia, she is a young woman working two jobs and also committing small thefts to look after her mum who has cancer. So that's OK then? Question mark. and she comes into contact with Nick, played by Connor Swindells. He's working in a security store, but he has, let's say, history with a department store where she works, Sterling's, which is run by Peter Serafinovich, who is married to Lucy Punch in this.

2:25And basically the two of them concoct a plan to steal the store over Christmas and finally set their lives on the right path again. For reasons that I don't want to go into too much initially, but we may well get into during the program. Of course, as always on Bahambug, we do get into spoilers. So if you're very concerned about spoilers in your silly Christmas movies, I do suggest you go watch them and then come back and we'll talk about them some more. Amon, overall, what did you think of this? Good, bad, indifferent? I am somewhere in the middle of all of that with this film. I think it's possible.

3:02I think it's fine. I'm using words like that. it's likeable enough like that the leads are likeable enough on their own i think the plotting just about works it's not very sophisticated but it just about works it's one of those films where there's enough elements of it that do work that you wish that more of it had been tightened up so it would be go from something that's merely possible and fine to something genuinely good and great and aside from some in admittedly inspired twists in the final act I think the mode that it plays in for much of the movie is just aggressive three-star possible fine you know what I was just looking up the film's wikipedia page to have it handy in front of me and being able to check on people's character names and so on and I came across the summary on its IMDb page, which says, Jingle Bell Heist is a harmless piece of Netflix content that's designed to be enjoyable in an undemanding fashion.

4:07And - 100%. I mean, I've never seen anything more damned with faint praise, I don't think, than that. But I mean, look, I had a nice time with it in the sense that I think, like yourself, I went in with extremely low expectations. Partly, to be fair to everyone involved, because I hadn't looked up who was involved. I want to say that. it's not because of the people who made this it's not even because of the cast or anything like that it's just because of the look of it and I'll be honest the name and compared to those very low expectations you know I thought it outperformed those and that is mostly because it had a little bit of British Christmas movie kind of grit to it there's a slightly different energy I think to it you know this feels like people who actually live in a version of London that I recognise somewhat they live with flatmates they live in non-photogenic houses they you know worry about getting treatment on the NHS it's not completely removed it's not in some love actually or some sleepless in Seattle kind of fantasy world and I appreciate that I also did like the last act and we will get to that I think in a little bit because I think it's really key to this but also like there's a lot of quite first base silly comedy on the way which is kind of surprising because this script was on the blacklist.

5:25This script was quite talked about. Yeah, yeah, I would agree. It's just a little too first base. And I was saying, like, if they just tightened up a few elements, I think where you can really tell that it needed a little bit more was in there's a couple of scenes that some seduction is involved and they fall a little bit flat on a humour level, on a seduction level. who just wanted a little bit more than what the actors and what the script was giving you. So, yeah, again, I feel like I'm going to repeat myself a couple of times on this, but like, tighten it up, just tighten it up. Yeah, it is close here.

6:03So this is directed by Michael Fimignari. I apologize if I pronounced that wrong, who was a cinematographer who worked a lot with Mike Flanagan, for example, and has now turned director in the last few years, has been doing other Netflix films, did some of the To All the Boys I've Loved Before sequels, spinoffs. So like at this point, I feel like knows what he's doing is getting his feet under him as a director. And as I said, it's written by Abby McDonald, who has a lot of books behind her, has also worked on Bridgerton in the story editor and staff writer role. So, you know, good people there behind the camera.

6:41I enjoyed a lot of the cast. You know, Lucy Punch, I think, is really, really funny. Peter Serafinovits is always good value. I thought Michael Salami was really charming as his flatmates. You know, good people in this. It's just, it just felt like it wasn't quite sharp enough and like it was maybe pulling its punches or maybe it's that Netflix thing where they're trying to speak to people who aren't really paying attention to what's going on screen and are looking at their phone and having to explain everything that's happening. I was literally about to bring up second screen syndrome, which is what this film is absolutely giving it.

7:14but yeah i agree with all the actors he listed they add so much to characters who aren't really written that well michael salami as ralph is a particular example of that i would does it does this kind of have one page of description i don't know maybe half a page but he adds so much personality to that and i like that again there's a lot of really good elements here I feel like one of the themes in this is about class and about the haves and the have-nots but that is not nearly as pronounced as it could have been to really impact the film and like you I like Peter Serafin the witch a lot but he is not given I don't think the dialogue and the screen time to really make that character as hateable as he perhaps should be and he's a really really good actor and he does what he can with what he's got but it's not quite enough to just take it over the top yeah and i feel like it's maybe it verges what we get verges on kind of cartoon villain yeah you know with really no redeeming features i cannot stress this enough he is a bad guy he was nicer as a zombie quite frankly than this and i think that's fine and that can be good but then i think that works better for a slightly younger skewing film than the rest of this is because that would work in a sort of kids caper movie and even could work in this case conor swindelik's character is a dad and you know there's an adorable kid there at times to be adorable you know but it doesn't feel like that's the energy this is going for nick is a real guy with real problems and he is this feels like it's aimed at the 20 something gen z crowd who are struggling with their own economic issues and look there is a satisfaction a little bit in seeing two young people get some get some of what's theirs in a film like this but I didn't think that it was quite developed enough like you say not get some in that way come on come on this is a family podcast you needed to clarify what you meant by that and you're lucky this is just me because if you were with James and Chris they would have been on that like a flash and you not be able to get even three words after that sentence it is true i apologize to all listeners i apologize but yeah it's just not quite there i think you're right but let's talk about really spoilery stuff now because i did enjoy those spoilers i did enjoy where this film went so because we'd already potentially talked about talking about this and then and i was sitting the whole way through the film going oh my god amon is going to go on a rant about these characters about their life choices, about the fact that they are turning to crime and they are bad people and he will not forgive them for that, despite the sympathy of their situation.

10:05And then we get to the end of the film and we discover they have not technically stolen the things that we thought they were trying to steal. They have instead put things back to not even frame, but to exact justice for this horrible man who had previously gotten away with everything. And I thought that was very, very satisfying. I would agree. I don't know where, you know, this thing about me being the mall police has now become one of my things. And there's now, OK, I'll take it. It's fine. I don't know exactly how that happened, but OK. But yes, I did like that. I thought it was inspired. Everything with the safe and how they get into the safe.

10:50and then she puts her finger like oh wow she is the daughter of peter's urban which i did not see that coming at all probably should have because i've watched this twice down preparation for this pod and there are some hints in the film given sort of how she acts when he's coming into the store and other stuff like that it's like oh there was something more here that they were setting up so i really really like that if i could get on my moral high horse for just one second though

11:24because Cynthia Sterling ends up winning in a way like she takes control of Sterling's holdings and whatnot and I get that she was the third wheel in the plot in the end and came up with the idea in a sense to put things back and fair play but my sympathy for her I don't have much because she recognized Nick. She has known what her husband has done and she has chosen to do nothing. And for that, like the moral police in me is a bit like, I'm not sure I feel entirely comfortable with the idea of you winning based on that because you knew exactly who your husband was. You've chosen to stay with him.

12:08You've known what he's done. You've chosen to say nothing. And then you win at the end of the movie. I don't know about that. So I guess the idea was that she, yes, married him not let's be charitable assume she didn't know when she married him how much of a monster he was and then it was a choice between putting up with him or being penniless which admittedly there is a right moral answer to that equation but it's not an easy thing i guess to go from being rich to being penniless so i suppose that's why we're supposed to forgive her but yeah you're not wrong that's fair i think she's she does end up coming out of it best and she is not the worst, but also not the second best.

12:47You know, she's not close to the top, I wouldn't say in this film. And we have to trust, really, by the way, our heroes also have to trust that she means what she says when she says she will sort them out. That is very much a leap of faith on their part that could have absolutely not paid off. Jingle Bell Heist 2, Helen, you know it's going to happen. What did you make of Olivia Holt and Connor Swindell's in this? Because I don't know if I've seen Connor Swindell's in much, but Olivia Holt I've been a fan of since Cloak and Dagger which is a Marvel series she plays Dagger in that and because it was a Marvel thing you know I was duty bound to watch it and she brings a feistiness to that character I've always been sort of impressed with her I guess since that and I've watched her in a couple of things that she's in since and she always brings a personality and a verb to her characters and I felt that a little bit here I did not however feel much heat between Connor and Olivia, which was a little bit of a problem at times.

13:45Yeah, I think it would have been better if one had. I didn't. Yeah, I didn't think they were like made for each other kind of sexual chemistry, but I appreciated it as a slow burn, I guess. I had actually probably seen him more recently than her because I definitely saw him in William Tell last year and I guess presumably in Scoop as well, although I didn't remember that. But he He was really familiar to me. So I was kind of like, oh, OK. And I thought he did a good job of treading that line between being a total sad sack when we met him and also having a little bit of a spark to him and a little bit of a sense of, oh, I can come up with a plan.

14:21I'm still a guy who's looking for something, even though I've been devastated by everything that's been done to me. So I thought that was kind of an interesting balancing act that he did. so yeah quite like them and I think that's one of the reasons that I was sort of willing to put up with some of the sort of slightly more first base scenes in this movie oh no they're hiding from a person who's in the room kind of stuff or oh no they have the old thing where you have to pretend you're hearing stuff out of an earpiece and repeating whatever and the other person says I would have preferred that scene if it had gone completely smoothly and they had been able to juggle the two conversations really cleverly so everything knitted up i thought that because that's what they started to do for a couple of minutes in that scene i was like oh i like this this is very pleasing this is very clever and then this is what i mean by tightening up the script like a punch-up in that scene in particular because i think we'll work wonders but the first time i talked to you about this was weeks ago now you were talking about this scene i'm just happy that the film called them on them not being very good at this, rather than have a see them not being very good at this and then just kind of ignore it.

15:29That was actually a pleasant twist to me. It's like, oh no, I'm going to call you on this and then I'm going to join you in your heist. That was very, very good because my goodness, it was so clumsy. It was so obvious. I'm like the characters would be immediately undermined by just going along with this and not calling them out on it because it was that because it was that comedy. So they actually were going to say, but yes, it was intentionally bad. I like that. And the fact that they stayed a little bit amateurish the whole way through was also quite satisfying to me. Like even their getaway, they've clearly planned everything, but they don't have millions and millions of backup plans.

16:09they don't have lots and lots of contingencies you know they sort of muddle through and even when they're making that big decision of oh you go I can take the fall and it doesn't quite work out that way but but I thought that was clever you believe that okay these guys have gotten this far but they haven't really thought it the whole way through they have 12 percent of a plan to put it in Marvel terms again you know and that was kind of fun yeah Danny Ocean they are not they are not Danny Ocean no and I do have to say me being me the score was not working for me no Daniel Pemberton the composer is not it just felt overbearing it did not feel in a lot of step of the film I think the brass feels out of place it feels like sub Oceans 11 in the score in a lot of ways for me it was not working oh that's a shame I mean presumably brass they're going for like a Christmassy feel there, right?

17:05But this is... Yeah, but this is a heist movie. I don't know. The instrumentation choices did not work for me in general. You wanted something, what, a bit jazzier or a bit more kind of loose? A little bit jazzier. A little bit soon. I will give the film bonus points for Christmas and Hollis run the MC needle drop. That was great. That's always fun. It immediately bopped my head to that track because it is a banger. And original recordings as well always get a bonus point, especially on Netflix and Hallmark and all those where we sometimes get very dodgy spinoffs. I do want to say in the composer's defence, it is apparently his feature scoring debut.

17:42Steve Hackman, who's a conductor, composer, producer, arranger, singer, songwriter. So only way is up then as far as you're concerned. But yeah, good luck to him next time. Yeah. Look, like I say, maybe it's because I just went in with zero expectation. But at least they met that. My biggest notes, and you know me, were the department store didn't look big enough. I liked the space. You know, I liked the space that they had. Like, it was cool. It was an interesting building. They'd gone for some real kind of personality. But there wasn't a sense that there was much there, was there? This is the most Helen O 'Hara notes.

18:24There's ever Helen O 'Hara notes. Production design matters. and I know you're operating on a budget for something like this and I appreciate that they went for personality but I did want a bit more sense of there being an upstairs to this place, that's all. That is incredible. I don't know how I was noticed. It didn't look Christmassy enough, it wasn't big enough. Change that. Well, no, it did look Christmassy enough. I want to give them credit for that. The Christmas decor was, I thought, spot on. and you got the sense of like big department store lots of money being spent and then also ordinary people's houses small little tree in the corner maybe they've got a bigger branch five minutes away helen but this is where the boss is based even the smallest london department store let's take a fortnum's right there is more space than that than there was in this that's all i'm saying okay i'll take your word but you have much more experience in this area all right anyone one on earth well you haven't even done your shopping yet you've probably not been in a department store yeah still all to come all right so let's rank this for christmasiness what are you going to give this film out of five for christmasiness i'm going to give it a four for christmasiness because as you mentioned the decor is very very christmasy and we didn't mention it but the end credits consist of our heroes around the table, having dinner with families and whatnot.

19:56That felt very Christmassy to me. And just the overall vibe, how the film concludes, as we've mentioned, with justice rather than getting it for yourself. And I felt that energy actually all the way through. Like there's a line that Sophia has, everything I want is for her, her being her mother. And obviously Colin Swindell's love for his daughter is very, very apparent. And I do think one thing that they did do successfully on the script level was show Sophia falling for Nick based on her watching him interact with his daughter, given all the baggage that she has with father-daughter stuff. Absolutely.

20:41Yeah, I agree with that. I think that was really nice. And the fact that, yes, he's not out for riches, actually. He's out just to rebuild the life that he had. He wants to clear his name for his daughter's sake as much as his own, you get the impression. It's not just a cheap sort of leave me my name kind of the crucible thing. It's I want my daughter to be able to be proud of me, which is a very sweet kind of motivation. Yeah, I think, you know, four is maybe on the generous side. It might be a 3.5, but it's Christmas. We can't be generous at Christmas. I don't know we're doing points or whatnot.

21:13We can do point fives here. Okay. You've got to let me know the rules before. Oh, well, you know. Okay, and then Mark's out of five for this as a movie. This is a three. This could not be anything. This is aggressively three. Yeah, that's probably fair. Look, I had a nice time and I liked everybody involved coming out of this, but it's hard to justify going any higher than that, I think. yeah let's say a three then for jingle bell heist which is on netflix now if you haven't seen it already check it out amon first of all a couple of questions i ask everybody i have to check if your answers remain the same your favorite christmas movie the one you have to watch every year it's between home alone and die hard if the kids are around obviously it's home alone it's Die Hard, yeah.

22:03Sorry. One day, Helen, one day my nieces and nephews will be old enough to be like, you know what, kids, let me introduce you to Die Hard. It will be a momentous day, but we are not quite there yet. No, me neither. We are counting down the Christmases here in my house too. So yes, Home Alone, the answer to that. Although we're probably not going to go that way this year. Sister Act is very much on the brain right now. Sister Act and Sister Act 2. Correct. And yeah, I feel like Sister Act Two would go hard in the Warman household on the 21st this year. Joyful, joyful. Absolutely. All right. And then any Christmas traditions that were unusual in your house?

22:47Anything you have to eat or hang on the tree or open at a certain time or anything like that? my mum for as long as i can remember loves watching it used to be the queen's speech now it's the king's speech so normally we go to church come back cook and the food is more or less just about ready as the king's speech this year we'll be playing we watch the king's speech then we eat then we open presents we're very oh yes i know that is like christmas eve and do that first in the morning we wait until after dinner to open presents that is more self-control than i thought you had that's pretty impressive wow that's how we do it in the woman household wow okay all right amon if people want to hear more from you where can they find you if people want to hear me they could listen to the fate of black podcast which we have new episodes every Saturday.

23:48We just recorded very early this week our final episode of the year. So yes, we have an interview with Erin Motten from Fallout, which Clarice was very, very happy to do. She's a very big fan of that game. And we reviewed Marty Supreme, Avatar and Sentimental Value. Good week. Yes, good movies. And where else can you find me? I am a contributing editor at Empire Magazine, so I do their bits and bobs for them. You can find me on random episodes of the empire podcast both regular and spoiler i'm on talk sport radio i'm doing things in print i'm doing things online i'm doing things on tv every now and then as the kids say google me google him all right there you go that is it that is christmas and off to i'm sure commit no jingle bell heists whatsoever but a certain amount of jingle bell last minute shopping.

24:42Amon Warman, thank you very much and happy Christmas. Christmas to you. Peace, everyone.

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