Revision | ‘Um Match Surprisa’ is a cute Christmas romantic comedy, but like any other of its kind

The year-end movie season has already started on major streaming platforms, even two months after the Christmas and New Years celebration – and, following the release of “The Noel Family,” Netflix has already presented us with a second title that promises to warm our hearts: ‘A Match Surprise’.

The story centers on a young woman named Natalie Bauer (Nina Dobrev), a journalist who uses her failed love life to bring to life articles that delight people around the world and recount their misadventures in the most unexpected way possible. However, Nat thinks that is about to change when she meets the perfect guy on a dating app: apart from looking good, he’s fun, attentive, and eager to know all about her. After spending weeks chatting, Nat decides to travel to his suitor’s town to surprise him for the Christmas celebrations – only to find out that he’s not really who he claims to be. Engulfed in an elaborate catfish, the protagonist crosses paths with Josh (Jimmy O. Yang) and realizes that she has no luck with matters of the heart.

Josh tries to apologize when he says he created a fake profile because he didn’t feel safe with himself, but he didn’t imagine the conversation with Nat would evolve into such a strong bond. . Realizing that his true crush, Tag (Darren Barnet) lives in the same town, he makes a deal that can benefit both of them: If Nat agrees to pretend to be his girlfriend until the end of the vacation, he l ‘will help earn Tag. in return. This is where the whole main plot unfolds. And, in the end, the streaming giant’s production has all the elements that involve its viewers and users – a handful of forgettable formulas and “twists and turns” that simply don’t tarnish the structure anymore. of the work for the pleasure that the prints.

The plot is not and does not seek to be original: we are dealing with a time of the year when all the plots converge on an amalgamation of romantic comedies or fantastic adventures that celebrate union, love and all the best Christmas can bring us (one despite so many tragedies over the past two years). Knowing how to handle such a cliché is key to updating the classics or deconstructing genre casts – and that’s what screenwriters Danny Mackey and Rebecca Ewing certainly can’t do. From act one to raw completion, anyone with any experience watching cinematic iterations can predict every move of every character in every sequence.

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Overall, the feature works as an unbalanced fusion between the anthology “Simplesmente Amor” (which, in turn, was told as the mini-franchise “Idas e Vindas do Amor” and “New Year’s Night” ) and the comedy “Lie Lie Wife” starring Adam Sandler and Jennifer Aniston. While he doesn’t take himself seriously and is aware that he won’t have a big impact, the narrative doesn’t even seek to build a A believable start, middle and end: Nat is blamed for everything that happened and not even because he is given less of the benefit of the doubt for why he indulged in this very well-planned lie; his brief arc alongside Tag is completely forgotten before it’s finished, in favor of her union with Josh, who really knows her (in a fun and heartwarming emulation of the aforementioned 2003 film); and some scenes border on pedantry because they are so exaggerated.

Hernán Jiménez, at the head of the board, doesn’t have much to work with and, for this reason, is building something understandable without too much mental fatigue – and although some characters appear to be buffers, we want to know how Nat will navigate through so many lies and tricks. Ultimately, it’s the one-off chemistry between her and Josh that stumbles along the way to the couple’s fabulous bond; we know what’s going to happen; we know how it’s going to be; and when the right predictions come true, it’s almost impossible not to smile because everything turned out well – after all, that’s what we want for ourselves and for those we love.

‘Um Match Surpresa’ is cute, for lack of a better adjective. There’s not much to analyze here, other than that opportunities were lost in a need to please the many – and if we don’t need a deep inflection, it would be interesting. to see a little more charisma, fluidity and daring.

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