Overall, I’d give the movie a 2/5. I probably would watch it again if someone really wanted to, but I’d definitely use my phone while we did it.

The plot was pretty boring - there was no overarching story or threat like most Christmas movies, it was really just their relationship and relationships with the family. We knew the outcome ahead of time, just based on real events, so there weren’t particularly high stakes with the relationship either.

The Taylor Swift references were mid. The characters didn’t even represent their real lives very well. The in-movie Taylor’s father passed away and she apparently has a rocky relationship with her mother, which is damn near as far away from reality as you can get. The Travis character is on the same team as his brother, which is not accurate but less egregious than the Taylor character issues so it’s whatever. The ex-boyfriend is an enigma, because I’m not sure who on Earth it was supposed to portray. The character seemed to be Joe, but behave more like Jake Gyllenhaal (if Jake was a huge douche).

The biggest Taylor references made were just lyrics to songs with no meaning or context. Like a character saying “you know all too well” or “I’m not really a cheerleader type, more like a bleachers type”. They had opportunity to actually recreate scenarios from the songs but I think that would have required them to have actually listened to a song in the last decade, rather than apparently only being a fan since Red. I’m almost certain the writer(s) were not actual Taylor fans and were just trying to cash in on her fame.

After all that, somehow I am most upset about the disrespect the movie keeps dishing out to NFL running backs. Making it sound like the Travis character gets no respect just because he’s a lowly running back and his brother is the quarterback. I’m not even in to football and some of the most famous football players of all time are running backs or wide receivers, including Travis himself! Whoever wrote the film obviously didn’t know Taylor lore or how the NFL works and it shows.

So there is my review of “Christmas in the Spotlight”. I’d love to hear your thoughts as well - did anyone else watch it?