Champagne Problems Review: Ambitious businesswoman Sydney Price travels to France to acquire a renowned champagne brand before Christmas, but her festive adventure ends in her falling in love with charming Parisian Henri Cassell, who turns out to be the founder’s son.
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Champagne Problems Movie Cast
Minka Kelly, Tom Wozniczka, Sean Amsing, Thibault de Montalembert, Astrid Whettnall, Flula Borg, Xavier Samuel
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Champagne Problems Netflix Writer & Director
Mark Steven Johnson
The Christmas rom-com film has a runtime of around 98 minutes.
Champagne Problems Review
In Champagne Problems, a young, ambitious woman finds love and conflict over the holiday season when she travels to France to take over a well-known champagne company and finds a partner instead. The film is one of the many Christmas films that are about to be released on the platform this holiday season, and one that has predictable themes filled with cliches.
The central conflict of the film, much like others in the genre, follows Sydney’s moral conflict between taking over Henri’s family business or choosing love instead. No bets on what she chooses here. The conflict is a tale as old as time and has no depth that differentiates it from others. The film is repetitive and a bit boring, because you already know what’s going to happen. Moreover, I didn’t believe the romance at all as it felt very scripted and overdone. It takes away from the magic of falling in love during the most romantic time of the year, which is such a bummer of epic proportions.
This entire premise is just so overdone at this point that it brings annoyance instead of amusement to viewers. It lacks the charm of holiday films like these and feels overdone in every way possible. There is hardly any character depth, either, and it feels mechanical at this point to see the same old story being retold over and over again.
I guess Minka Kelly and Tom Wozniczka look great, but their lack of chemistry is palpable. I don’t, for a second, believe that they are in love, and that is made more apparent thanks to the lacklustre characters. Maybe something a bit more unique would’ve added flair to the obvious story and made it special, but there’s literally nothing that differentiates it from the hundreds of other feel-good films that drown us during the last two months of the year.
Champagne Problems features Sydney’s struggle to balance between their personal and professional lives, and while it may seem familiar, the struggle doesn’t land because, again, the writing lacks depth. You almost relate to her but also don’t, and it’s a weird middle ground to tread. It’s just so surface-level that it feels silly… but maybe that’s the point of these films at this point. Who knows?
However, I will say that the film looks really pretty most of the time. Although there’s no charm in the story, the backdrop, at least, looks beautiful. Apart from the terrible CGI, that is. That’s the thing about these holiday movies. They get some things right, but the others are just so shockingly terrible that it never really immerses you in the experience.
Final Thoughts
Champagne Problems is fine for a light-hearted, forgettable watch. But it’s nothing more than that. I think it could’ve been something warm and entertaining, but it ends up being just another half-hearted holiday flick that’s only fine being fleetingly watchable.
What are your thoughts on the film? Let us know in the comments below!
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