I Imagine in Santa is a brand new vacation film on Netflix that may make you look at your concept of Christmas, blur your notion of movie genres, and simply typically make you query actuality. What did I simply watch? Am I actually right here, typing away at my thirty ninth vacation film evaluation? Or have I been trapped in a actuality whereby a 53-year-old man believes in Santa with a fervor that most individuals reserve for precise religions — and we’re one way or the other on his aspect?

The Gist: I… nicely, okay… let’s see — uh, so Christina Moore performs Lisa, a single mother and columnist for the web site Mile Excessive E-Zine whose work appears to primarily give attention to what holidays she likes (July 4th) and dislikes (Christmas). Whereas celebrating July 4th on the native truthful, she meets a lawyer named Tom (John Ducey). The 2 begin courting and issues go nicely. They go so nicely that they’re nonetheless collectively when Christmas rolls round — and that’s when Lisa and her bestie Sharon (Lateefah Holder) make the error of questioning when issues are gonna go flawed on this seemingly good relationship. It seems that Tom loves Christmas… and Lisa famously hates Christmas, very often in print.

Lisa and Tom determine to work via this tough spot, which quantities to Tom developing with a cavalcade of day by day Christmas actions designed to power Lisa and her daughter Ella (Violet McGraw) to like the vacation as a result of who doesn’t love Christmas? Issues are literally going superb till Tom has to disclose one thing he’s been nervous about telling Lisa: he believes in Santa Claus.

Like, severely. He totally believes that there’s a burly, immortal being who lives on the North Pole, presumably exterior of time as we understand it, and delivers toys to each good youngster aged 10 and underneath — and sure, this perception additionally extends to elves.

If this sounds just like the form of setup to a goofy vacation romcom, assume once more! After that reveal, I Imagine in Santa turns into a relationship drama and twin character research of two people with diametrically opposing beliefs and a meditation on — you guessed it — the facility of religion! [airhorn]

What Films Will It Remind You Of?: I don’t know — Elf if Buddy hadn’t been raised on the North Pole and was additionally handled as a critical romantic lead and never a clueless goofball? Or Miracle on thirty fourth Avenue if it was as an alternative about Doris Walker having a critical relationship with Kris Kringle? Truthfully, John Ducey’s efficiency as a romantic main man, who can also be a lawyer, provides the identical mixture of mania and menace that Jim Carrey served in The Cable Man.

Efficiency Value Watching: Moore and Ducey — who’re married IRL, I’ve discovered — are actually doing one thing on this film. I do know they’re attempting to play a loving couple however their eyes talk extra of a predator and prey vibe. The pair do their finest work in a scene the place Tom, a person who has been courting Lisa for 5 months who believes in Santa, chastises Lisa for not elevating her daughter as a believer: “I don’t assume it’s truthful so that you can put your lack of religion onto Ella.” Reminder: that’s a line about Santa Claus delivered from one grownup to a different. Lisa lashes out at him and later makes him go on a sleigh experience alone, which is that this film’s model of packing up the children and going to her sister’s.

Memorable Dialogue: “You guys ever been flocked?” “It’s not about logic. It’s about magic.” “Christmas: If you happen to’re not on the bus, you’re underneath it.” “Religion will be the final nice common idea holding the entire world collectively.” Let me let you know, I used to be screenshotting and sharing so many traces of dialogue with the opposite Decider writers that I ought to’ve created a separate Slack channel for them.

A Vacation Custom: The checklist of day by day actions that Tom needs Lisa to do — even on weeknights, which is such a degree of cruelty that you need to be over 35 to know — contains adorning the flocked Christmas tree that he places in her home, going to see a neighborhood manufacturing of A Christmas Carol, attending a tree lighting ceremony emceed by an a cappella group, going to Santa trivia night time the place the solutions are simply puns, baking cookies, and the aforementioned most miserable sleigh experience ever. It’s an excessive amount of, even for me — a person who’s reviewing his thirty ninth Christmas film of the yr.

Two Turtle Doves: The impression that my jaw left on my desk after I discovered that this film shares the identical director and author as this yr’s A Hollywood Christmas. Oh — and that author is Tom himself, John Ducey.

Does the Title Make Any Sense?: The title is the one factor about this film that is sensible.

Our Take: I’m nonetheless processing what I simply watched, which is a film that has Tom’s pal Assan (Sachin Bhatt) evaluate his Muslim religion to Tom’s perception in Santa Claus. That appears to be the bigger message that I Imagine in Santa goes for when it makes a onerous pivot in the direction of the intense round 50 minutes in.

The film was already extra puzzling than the puzzles you get for grandma yearly. The film needs — no, it wants us to purchase Tom as a critical catch for Lisa with a view to justify her staying with him even a millisecond after he says that he believes in Santa Claus. As an alternative, Tom comes throughout as a weird man-child, like a 10-year-old in a 53-year-old physique. The garments solely reinforce this vibe. There’s Tom, sporting a swimsuit vest over a vibrant crimson henley, or there he’s in a sweater vest with a vibrant crimson tie. One’s a glance the child picked out himself and the opposite could be very “mother made me put on a tie.”

Then there’s the final third of the movie, which tries actually onerous to — I don’t know, make adults who consider in Santa Claus right into a persecuted minority? Or present us how necessary religion is by way of a downhill cardboard sled race? Every little thing within the closing third is so self-serious that it actually boggles the thoughts. Think about a film whereby an affair tears a pair aside, however as an alternative of one other lady there’s a Santa. That’s the vibe.

By means of all of Tom’s justifications for why he believes in Santa, the film by no means reckons with the truth that in contrast to different religions, the Santa fantasy ought to be leaving tangible proof underneath hundreds of thousands of timber each single yr. Dad and mom all around the world ought to be flooding Fb with posts about shock presents. This drives me loopy in most films the place Santa seems to be actual, however particularly one whereby an grownup lawyer severely makes an attempt to elucidate why Santa is actual utilizing logic. I don’t know, y’all — I used to be screaming at my laptop computer for Lisa to only go away this man with the conviction of a Maury Povich viewers member in 1996.

I actually can not determine the place I stand on I Imagine in Santa, as a result of it actually does soar on a magical mixture of unhinged narrative ambition and bizarrely earnest sentimentality. There are occasions when the film hits The Room degree of disorienting, the place the film is telling you one factor however unintentionally (?) exhibiting you one thing fully completely different. That may be a feeling that I personally chase throughout this time of yr, when popular culture is flooded with Christmas films. To me, actual Christmas magic would possibly simply be a vacation columnist falling inexplicably in love with a grown man who believes in Santa and owns a whole lot of vests — however your cardboard sled mileage might range.

Our Name: SKIP IT as a result of, oh wow is I Imagine in Santa under no circumstances the form of film it must be with a view to work. However in case you’re like me and love being fully flummoxed by a film’s selections, then it will get an emphatic STREAM IT .