It may not even be Thanksgiving yet, but holiday romance season is well under way on the Lifetime and Hallmark channels. While the twin cable networks have dominated the genre for years, Netflix has made a few buzzy if not great forays into that snowy territory. While 2017’s A Christmas Prince was notoriously silly, its sequel last year was a disappointment. Instead, the highlight of their 2018 holiday programming was The Princess Switch, which featured two whole Vanessa Hudgenses doing a modern take on the The Prince and the Pauper. Though that film’s sequel–which promises to deliver a third Hudgens–won’t release until next year, Netflix is tiding us over until then with The Knight Before Christmas.
This time, Hudgens stars as Brooke, a teacher in Bracebridge, Ohio who we first meet telling a heartbroken student that knights in shining armor and true love don’t exist. Little does she know, an old crone (Ella Kenion) has just transported a knight named Sir Cole Christopher Frederick Lyons (Josh Whitehouse) from 1334 Norwich, England to present day Ohio with a quest of the heart he must complete by midnight on Christmas Eve. Mistaking him for a worker at the local Christmas village, Brooke believes she’s responsible for Cole’s “amnesia” after hitting him with her car and decides to take him in.
Typically, the male leads in these films spend the first half hour or so insulting the leading ladies to make their eventual coupling seem unlikely, so, it’s wonderfully refreshing that Cole isn’t just nice and helpful here, but serves largely as the film’s comic relief. Whether it’s the way he learns modern English by bingeing Netflix (yes, seriously) or cringing at the taste of supermarket bread, Whitehouse is charming and funny and it’s easy to understand why Brooke gets a dreamy look on her face when she gazes at him. Because Hudgens is playing the straight man to Whitehouse, she is largely responsible for selling the romantic weight in their relationship. When Brooke gets flustered over the way Cole chops down a Christmas tree in a single swipe or gets a hungry look in her eyes as he teaches her to knead bread dough properly, Hudgens makes the audience buy into those feelings too.
Still, as enjoyable as the leads’ light and playful chemistry may be, it’s not always the best distraction from all the ways the film asks the viewer to suspend their disbelief. When Brooke calls Cole a “renaissance man,” he doesn’t ask what that means even though only the most generous historians would include the 14th century in that period. When Brooke teaches him how to use an Alexa to play Christmas music, he quickly begins talking to the machine rather than the more likely scenario of accusing her of casting spells and trying to kill her. There’s a lot for a cynical viewer to latch onto and ridicule — but then Christmas romances aren’t made for cynics.
Indeed, those looking to dismiss Knight as just another corny holiday movie likely won’t be converted, but for connoisseurs of the genre, it’s far better than most. Absent is the usual anti-urban message so central to the cable channels’ films: Brooke moved home when her mother got sick and never left. Even better, Brooke is never criticized for having a job or caring about it like every other female lead. Maybe there’s something inappropriate in the way she gives her student romantic advice, but at least she’s teaching her not to put a boy over her own goals.
By far the most important way the film sets itself apart, though, is that it actually earns its message. Lest they be seen as shallow for focusing on romance, these films always make a point that the true meaning of Christmas isn’t in receiving gifts, but giving them. Usually, that means the big romantic climax happens at some homeless shelter or charity event. Brooke still throws a charity dinner here, but it’s just the setting for a more meaningful act of kindness. Throughout the film, there’s a subplot about how much David (Jean-Michel Le Gal), the father of one of Brooke’s niece Claire’s (Isabelle Franca) friends has struggled to provide for his family after his wife’s death the year prior, but the storytelling is so filled with time travel shenanigans that they’re easy to dismiss. So, it’s genuinely gratifying when Brooke and company surprise David’s family with the gifts he can’t afford.
However, the most remarkable way in which The Knight Before Christmas helps Netflix distinguish itself from Lifetime and Hallmark comes thanks to a seemingly throwaway moment. Netflix has previously included scenes where characters watch other Netflix Christmas in their films and that happens here as well, but Knight takes it a step further. In a scene where Brooke’s sister Madison (Emmanuelle Chiriqui) and niece Claire help Brooke and Cole trim the tree, Madison picks up a large wooden acorn from a box and explains that her parents got it during a trip to Aldovia. Yes, that’s right, Aldovia, the fictional kingdom where the Christmas Prince series takes place. And while you could interpret the line as fun and meaningless, it could also be the beginning of a Netflix Christmas Movie Shared Universe. A Universe where, should we be so lucky, no less than four Vanessa Hudgenses could share the screen. Now that would be a true Christmas miracle.
