A New York Christmas Wedding

A New York Christmas Wedding
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A Lot or a Little?
The parents' guide to what's in this movie.
What Parents Need to Know
Parents need to know that A New York Christmas Wedding has a guardian angel, an opportunity to relive a life, a rebuke to the Catholic church for anti-gay marriage policies, yet also an embrace of the solace that religion and community provide, with a teen pregnancy and talk of abortion thrown in. A suicide is mentioned. Language includes infrequent use of "f--k," "s--t," "damn," "ass," and "jerk." A teenage girl has sex with her boyfriend offscreen, and later, as an adult, the same character kisses her female partner and wife-to-be. Adults drink wine. A reference is made to getting drunk on tequila. A girl spikes eggnog with whisky.
Community Reviews
I wish the Catholic Church was this enlightened.
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Best Christmas movie ever!
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What's the Story?
Jennifer (Nia Fairweather) and Gabby (Adriana DeMeo) are best friends in high school. It's Christmas 1999 and Jennifer is about to tell her friend that she loves her beyond simple friendship. But they have a silly fight on the phone and both vow to never speak again. This leads Gabby to have sex with a bad boyfriend, which leads to pregnancy and, more than likely we learn later, her suicide. As Jennifer is about to marry David (writer-director Otoja Abit), the polished son of two wealthy entrepreneurs, David's mother's bossiness catapults Jennifer out of the house to clear her head. We learn her hesitations about the wedding have less to do with a controlling mother-in-law than with memories of her gay first love. Enter Azrael (Cooper Koch), Jennifer's guardian angel. He sends Jennifer into alternate universes, one where David is married with kids and doing just fine without her. In this universe, Jennifer lives with the no-longer-dead Gabby and they're planning a wedding, if they can get the priest (Chris Noth) to marry them in the church they've attended all their lives. He ignores church law and performs the rite, at which point the angel Azrael shows up again, making Jennifer an offer about which life she wants to choose.
Is It Any Good?
A Christmas Wedding in New York is all over the place, making so many arguments regarding so many issues that it's difficult to identify the many messages and appreciate them all. One argument is made fairly late in the action by a priest as he quotes a passage from Corinthians that denounces "fornicators, adulterers, male prostitutes, sodomites…" The priest calls it "one of the most damning, hurtful and misused Christian passages in the Bible" and sees a direct correlation between those words and "the rise of gay Catholic suicides."
Writer-director Otoja Abit nevertheless conveys a fondness for religious traditions at the same time he sees the church's position as hypocritical in its supposed acceptance of gay people and its simultaneous refusal to allow them to marry in the church. More subtle value judgments are communicated here as well. This movie suggests it's better to be with the gay, middle-class love of your life than with your super-rich hetero boyfriend and his pretentious and bossy parents. All of this contemporary social commentary is mixed with a fantasy about a woman still yearning for her dead first love, and the guardian angel who's helping her go back twenty years and live happily ever after with people who are long gone. Likable performers and the movie's general emphasis on elevating love and inclusion above all else help make this palatable.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about how kids feel when they're disowned by their parents. When Gabby became pregnant her parents abandoned her. How did that affect her?
How does this movie view the Catholic church? What message does it offer to the church hierarchy, to Catholics, and to the religious community in general?
How does this movie promote the theme of acceptance? What are some of the different ways of thinking and being presented here?
Movie Details
- On DVD or streaming: November 1, 2020
- Cast: Nia Fairweather, Chris Noth, Otoja Abit, Adriano DeMeo
- Director: Otoja Abit
- Studio: Netflix
- Genre: Drama
- Run time: 88 minutes
- MPAA rating: NR
- Last updated: October 8, 2022
Our Editors Recommend
For kids who love the holidays
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