Movie Review: El Camino Christmas


During the period leading to Christmas, there are always movies which demonstrate the spirit of the season and falls under the category of feel-good movies. Although El Camino Christmas shows up on Netflix around the holiday season, it is different. El Camino Christmas takes all the ingredients that make a staple Christmas movie and apply it to a hostage drama. In fact, it is marrying two genres. The result of this marriage is an interesting film. It is not world class cinema but sure ends up amusing us and also keeping us away from day to day problems. 

The movie unravels in a small town named El Camino in Nevada. There are two kinds of people in this town, the ones who want to get out of this place and the others who are stuck. A young man(Luke Grimes) arrives in this small town in search of a man. Very soon, he is trapped in a liquor store in a hostage situation with a few of other townsfolk. Giving him company is the local law enforcement officer(Vincent D'Onofrio), the store owner(Emilio Rivera), the store assistant(Michelle Mylett), her son and a local drunkard(Tim Allen). Outside the store, the sheriff(Kurtwood Smith) and his deputy(Dax Shepard) tries to resolve this conflict. Very soon, a pregnant reporter(Jessica Alba) joins to televise the event.

As soon as the movie starts, we know something has gone wrong in the store. From here, David E Talbert takes us back a few hours to show us the events that culminated in the scene that kicks off the movie. When the characters are introduced, we wonder about the introduction of the villains. Very soon, we found out that the real villains are the prejudices. Add miscommunication on top of it; then you have a drama which makes you contemplative. At this point, the drama makes you laugh. In the end, it conforms to the norms of a Christmas movie. Everything has to end well. It is drama around the hostage situation and rescue combined with excellent performance from the cast makes this movie a good watch.

Language: English

Genre: Drama

Rating: ***

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