Christmas with the Singhs (2024)
Meet the Parents: Hallmark-Style
This was a very entertaining, thoroughly believable movie. Going on the title alone, I was worried that this would be rife with cultural appropriation and just downright cringeworthy, but it was anything but.
Asha is an Indian-American nurse, having lived in the US since she was a young child. Jake was her childhood acquaintance who comes back into her life after a chance accident leads him to her ER. While their high school years weren’t the stuff of movie romance - he was the jock, she was the book nerd, a rekindling of friendship quickly leads to more. Rather than spending the whole movie digging into how these two people with very different upbringings eventually end up together, instead we get a first act kiss (slow down, Hallmark, whatcha doing kissing before final scene?!?) and then a time jump to one year later.
And now we see them together, one year in, going strong, and about to spend Christmas together, back in their hometown, and as a newly-engaged couple. And as many married couples know, coming together in marriage also means adopting and adapting traditions to reflect the changes in your life together. Jake has parents long-since divorced, with a father who has basically given up on Christmas cheer, and a mother who still does all she can for community in the spirit of Christmas. Asha’s family has the perfect meld of Christian and Hindu traditions, and is basically overflowing with Christmas spirit. Right until she accidentally shows up dressed as the Virgin Mary - a small step too far for her old school father.
Really pleasantly surprised by this melding of cultures and traditions - carolling to the sound of a sitar?!? GAC would never…
I will also be buying my husband a nice plaid vest to wear this year. Don’t tell him.
You’ll like this if…
You have a lot of appreciation for Christmas movies that aren’t just of the WASP variety.
