Merry Christmas, Ted Cooper! (2025)
For a movie that played the odds, this one won big!
This is what you get when the right mix of humour, Christmas whimsy, and a writer who knows his actors (i.e. himself). Robert Buckley has really got it figured out when it comes to writing for his own style of Christmas rom-coms, having also written the Christmas House movies in recent years.
Merry Christmas, Ted Cooper! follows the titular character as he returns home for Christmas. An overly positive local weatherman with a history of Christmastime mishaps, his ability to find bad luck is so much a given that his colleagues have placed bets on likelihood of something happening. The odds?
Chips tooth on a candy cane - 5:1
Kisses beautiful woman live on air - 10,000:1
Electrocutes self on a Christmas light - 12:1
Ted goes to jail - 90:1
Eye poke in Christmas related accident - 6:1
Impaled by a reindeer antler - 500:1
Hit by a runaway sleigh - 60:1
Tripped on faulty lights - 3:1
Chokes on a chunk of fruitcake - 9:1
You can see where this is going, right?
After someone else takes his suitcase by accident, the run of bad luck has begun - falling off a ladder and getting hit in the head by a box of christmas lights? Yep. Getting poked in the eye by a tree, necessitating a Christmas eye patch? You betcha. A quick trip to the slammer after getting caught breaking into a car after locking his keys inside? Of course! And an allergic reaction to peanut butter gingerbread cookies? Naturally. (Writer’s note: as someone with a peanut allergy this made my own skin crawl - it’s basically a constant fear throughout the holidays.
Meanwhile, Ted is reunited with a high school crush, Hope Miller - now a doctor who had the unfortunate luck of tending to his various maladies. Their reconnection is facilitated by some of the classic tropes - a visit to an old school tree lot and a Christmas costume party with Dickensian costumes (my fave!).
One of the more unique plot points - getting stuck overnight in a Christmas-themed escape room (fun fact: it was filmed in an an abandoned cannabis processing factory… how very BC of them…). And a shoutout to the Eras Tour! Robert Buckley really does know his audience..
And all this before finally sharing a kiss on air (odds of that happening were 10,000:1 if you’ll recall, but… Hallmark, so really it was an absolute certainty).
You’ll like this if…
You enjoy something fun and light and definitely not too twee. Shades of Bruce Almighty with the physical comedy balancing out the earnestness. The best entry of 2025 so far!
