I love a man who can dance. Or maybe I just like Channing Tatum in Magic Mike? Either way, I find that watching men dance rides that perfect edge between sexy and hilarious. Female strippers can be depressing, but male strippers have this zesty absurdity that makes their dance routines sort of wholesome, even when they end up naked. To be clear, I'm pretty much talking about male strippers in movies. I've never actually seen a male revue, which seems like something I should remedy in 2025. Or maybe I should visit the small town in The Merry Gentlemen and catch a mid-afternoon strip show.
Ashley (Britt Robertson) is the principal dancer in a Rockette's-like show called the Jingle Belles which is apparently popular enough year-round to provide Ashley with a decent NYC living. That is, it was, until Ashley is unceremoniously fired from the show just a few weeks before Christmas. That leaves her free to go home for the holidays for the first time in years. But when she returns to her small town, she discovers that her parents' bar is falling apart and her parents are deep in debt. Ashley is determined to save the business, but how can she get people in the door?
By combining her dance expertise with the shirtless torsos of various local men, of course!
One in particular has caught Ashley's eye: soulful handyman Luke (Chad Michael Murray) whose half-naked body inspired the whole scheme. Ashley and Luke grow closer as the show gains popularity. When Ashley is offered her old job back, she'll have to decide what matters more to her: the old dream of success in the big city, or the friends and family who wait for her back home.
I was sort of underwhelmed by The Merry Gentlemen until the first dance sequence, at which point I wrote in my notes "This is everything I've ever wanted in a Christmas movie." A fun poppy Christmas song, AND naked men gyrating? 10/10, no notes.
I do have some serious questions about Ashley's business model. I would think that a show like this would have three or four solid routines and some patter during costume changes, adding up to a show that runs about an hour. Instead, Ashley seems to have them learning a new routine for each performance, which then only lasts for five minutes.
In fact, while I'm at it, I have some other marketing ideas. Like, wouldn't it make sense to have two shows a night, and encourage the audience to drink at the bar in between? I've thought of three names for salacious specialty cocktails already. Instead, their first show ends early enough for Ashley and Luke to get pizza and get a picture with a mall Santa.
Are there late-night mall Santas? SHOULD there be late night mall Santas? I definitely would have paid good money to sit on Santa's lap at 1am in my party girl days. Ashley, I've just had another great marketing idea for your bar!
In addition to providing me with delightful dance sequences, this movie also reveals a mind-blowing twist in the Netflix Christmas Cinematic Universe. At one point, a depressed Ashley is at home watching A Christmas Prince. It's a nice little wink at the audience that tells us Ashley is Just Like You (TM). Later, when she's at her parents' bar, she's nostalgically looking at the framed newspaper clippings covering the wall. One of the clippings reveals that the couple from The Princess Switch inexplicably visited this small-town bar. But in The Princess Switch, it's implied that the royal families in the two movies are related to each other. So, if the couple in The Princess Switch are real, then that means the couple in the Christmas Prince are also real, so when Ashley is watching that movie, she's watching... a documentary? Someone gets me some red ribbon; I've got a Christmas conspiracy to solve!
Could you watch this with your grandma? I'm gonna leave that up to you and your grandma. There is way more man-chest than the average Christmas rom-com, but the love story is wholesome and chaste. What is your grandma's take on Chad Michael Murray? Personally, I've disliked him since he was Tristan in season 1 of Gilmore Girls, but I'm willing to reconsider him now that he's a nice hot guy instead of a mean hot guy. Was he one of your childhood crushes? Let me know!