Quartile rating: 6.5/10 · 1 rating
Fed up with being single on holidays, two strangers agree to be each other's platonic plus-ones all year long, only to catch real feelings along the way.
Holidate follows a well-worn romantic comedy formula — two people who agree to a no-strings arrangement inevitably fall for each other — without subverting or meaningfully elevating it. The holiday-hopping structure gives it a light seasonal charm and Emma Roberts and Luke Bracey have decent chemistry, lifting the acting above the script's limitations. Cinematography is functional at best, typical of Netflix rom-coms with little visual ambition. The concept is mildly cute but far from original, and the ending delivers the expected feel-good resolution competently but predictably.