Christmas is right around the corner and several streaming platforms consider it the perfect time for new releases. With more time on their hands, people can enjoy these heartwarming films that embody the spirit of the holidays. On Netflix, new releases include “A Castle for Christmas,” “Love Hard,” and “The Claus Family.” These new titles caught my attention because they were new and looked interesting. 

The first film that I watched was “A Castle for Christmas.” The movie starts with an author who has recently broken up with her boyfriend. Looking to take some time off, she books a tour of a historic castle in Italy and falls in love with one of the tour guides. I think this movie exemplifies the basic romantic trope of a heartbroken girl falling in love with a guy. When I heard “castle” I was expecting royalty. Instead, the castle was just an old, historical part of the town. I was also expecting a ball scene to tie into the “castle” fantasy. Overall, I thought this movie was boring and long. It had the potential to be a lot better; if they were not giving tours of the castle and there were people living in it, that would have been more interesting. I think the other movies will be more engaging and I would not recommend this movie. 

The next movie that I watched was “Love Hard.” This movie is about a girl who is also a writer. She documents the process of trying to find her soulmate by writing stories about her various dates. In an attempt to meet the right partner, she decides to expand her dating options and flies out three thousand miles. She starts to fall in love, but later realizes that she has been catfished. This movie was eventful, contained twists, and was not a typical love story. I think it was interesting that she was finding her dates on a dating app and not just running into a person on the street. I feel like a lot of movies just have the characters coincidentally meet, rather than deliberately, such as on a dating app, so it was new and different. The humor throughout the movie certainly made it a great watch, as well. I would recommend this movie to anyone. I believe that this will be the best movie out of the three. 

The last movie that I watched was “The Claus Family.” This movie is about a young boy who finds out that his grandfather is very sick. After learning the truth about his family, it is up to him to save Christmas by himself. I thought the movie was okay, but it was not the best and was not the worst. It reminded me of a kid’s movie, so it is definitely family-friendly. However, nothing exciting happened and there were not any surprising moments. I was not really interested in this movie and I personally would not recommend it.

Overall, I thought the best movie was “Love Hard.” The other movies were good in their own ways, “A Castle for Christmas”, a classic, yet predictable, love story and “The Claus Family”, a Christmas movie any kid would love. I think that some people would enjoy those movies, but they just were not captivating to me. If the other movies gave an extra inciting factor or something that made them more unique, I would have enjoyed them more.