{"id":2179815,"date":"2025-11-28T13:34:10","date_gmt":"2025-11-28T13:34:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2179815"},"modified":"2025-11-28T13:34:10","modified_gmt":"2025-11-28T13:34:10","slug":"fresh-netflix-schmaltz-in-paris-xmas-rom-com","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/fresh-netflix-schmaltz-in-paris-xmas-rom-com\/","title":{"rendered":"Fresh Netflix schmaltz in Paris Xmas rom-com"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div data-article-body=\"true\">\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Young and single, she flies in from the United States to France for work and finds a whirlwind romance instead. Yes, yes, we&#8217;ve seen this one already.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Except that no, this isn&#8217;t &#8220;Emily in Paris&#8221;, but Netflix&#8217;s latest rom-com film with a Christmas-branded take on some less-than-original tearjerking schmaltz.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><strong>The story<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Junior manager Sydney is sent to Paris to help her company acquire the prestigious champagne label Ch\u00e2teau Cassell just before Christmas.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Exploring the festively decorated city on her own with a promise to keep her head down (&#8220;I don&#8217;t have time for sightseeing&#8221;), she soon meets the Frenchman Henri in a bookshop.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Between the Eiffel Tower and a bridge over the Seine they spend magical romantic hours together before the bubble bursts the next morning when they both make a surprise discovery that impacts her work in Paris.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">If the story feels familiar so far, then the rest of the film will feel very predictable.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><strong>The characters<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Minka Kelly, crowned Sexiest Woman Alive in 2010, plays Sydney with an innocently sultry glance and pleasant smile. Opposite her, Tom Wozniczka is an easy-on-the-eyes Henri.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Their characters yearn for an orderly happiness without drama and are a touch strait-laced. That is fair and true to life, but for outsiders it is a bit like listening to the neighbours&#8217; pillow talk, only mildly exciting.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Champagne magnate Hugo Cassell (Thibault de Montalembert) is fatherly and well-meaning, while the German Otto (Flula Borg) comes across as stiff and overly correct. He is Sydney\u2019s rival for the champagne brand, as is the distinguished Frenchwoman Brigitte.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Stirring things up is Roberto (Sean Amsing), a gay millionaire who also wants the company because he loves serving the noble fizz at his parties.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><strong>The script and the setting<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The film radiates a rose-tinted plush cosiness. The twinkling Eiffel Tower is present, as are Paris\u2019s glittering lights and of course the snow-dusted baroque little chateau of the Cassell family, where patriarch Hugo plans to decide on a buyer.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">It is a setting and film far removed from the world\u2019s problems.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The script, meanwhile, holds plenty of howlers and groaners, some more, some less cringe-inducing. A selection:<\/p>\n<ul class=\"mb-4\">\n<li class=\"ml-4 list-disc\">\n<div class=\"\">\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#8220;Ch\u00e2teau Cassell turns my troubles into bubbles.&#8221; (Roberto on why he wants to buy the brand.)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"ml-4 list-disc\">\n<div class=\"\">\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#8220;With over a thousand varieties in France alone, cheese is more than food. It\u2019s part of our culture, our history. To get to know France, it\u2019s to get to know and love cheese.&#8221; (during a tasting)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"ml-4 list-disc\">\n<div class=\"\">\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#8220;We have a saying in Germany: &#8216;Alles hat ein Ende, nur die Wurst hat zwei&#8217;. Which is &#8216;Everything has an end, except for sausage, which has two.'&#8221; (Otto trying to be funny.)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"ml-4 list-disc\">\n<div class=\"\">\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#8220;Champagne problems? It just means your problems aren\u2019t really that bad. Most people would feel lucky to have your worries.&#8221; (Sydney on her experiences in France.)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"ml-4 list-disc\">\n<div class=\"\">\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#8220;Sometimes, you can live a whole life in just one day. I had a great life today.&#8221; (Henri to Sydney on their first evening.)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><strong>How does it make you <\/strong><strong>feel?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Like you&#8217;ve drunk a bit too much mulled wine, given nearly two hours of sugar-sweet romance. In return your head feels pleasantly empty and ready for dreams of sparkling lights and Christmas romance.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><em> \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em> \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.yahoo.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Young and single, she flies in from the United States to France for work and finds a whirlwind romance instead. Yes, yes, we&#8217;ve seen this one already. Except that no, this isn&#8217;t &#8220;Emily in Paris&#8221;, but Netflix&#8217;s latest rom-com film with a Christmas-branded take on some less-than-original tearjerking schmaltz. The story Junior manager Sydney is [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2179816,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[385803,419670,350426,394872,23191,344454,419669,22602],"class_list":["post-2179815","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-champagne-problems","tag-christmas-romance","tag-emily-in-paris","tag-minka-kelly","tag-netflix","tag-paris","tag-schmaltz","tag-sydney"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Fresh-Netflix-schmaltz-in-Paris-Xmas-rom-com.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2179815","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2179815"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2179815\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2179817,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2179815\/revisions\/2179817"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2179816"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2179815"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2179815"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2179815"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}