Netflix And Chill: The Wrong Paris (2025)

Once I'd finished watching The Wrong Paris, I checked out a few of the credits. I was unsurprised to see that director Janeen Damian has a filmography that lists a lot of producing credits on Christmas TV movies, and her previous two features were two of the Lindsay Lohan movies made as part of her Netflix deal. The Wrong Paris is a film that should have been given the Christmas wrapping. It's absolutely on par with many other films in that vein, albeit with a few compromises made to some more modern sensibilities, and it's another Netflix film that feels like what it is, content.

Miranda Cosgrove plays Dawn, a young Texan woman who hopes to travel to Paris and study at an art school there. She has been saving up for that dream for years, but recently had to spend the majority of her money on some medical expenses incurred by ger grandmother, Birdie (Frances Fisher). Her sister, Emily (Emilija Baranac), convinces her that she should audition for a TV show called "The Honeypot" (think of The Bachelor and you're close enough). It's even going to be set in Paris . . . Texas. After the disappointment of realising that she's still a long way from France, Dawn figures that passing a couple of the main challenges could get her enough money to help boost her savings. So Dawn joins the show and starts to act as if she really doesn't want to be there, as per her aim. But things change when she starts to have very obvious chemistry with the handsome "prize" of the show, Trey McAllen (Pierson Fodé).

Cosgrove is a decent lead, although she's served better by the comedy moments when her character isn't interested in being in the show than when she has to resort to the typical loved-up act. Fodé has clearly based his character entirely around his abs, and he supports those abs with enough charm and warmth to make himself seem worthy of being a TV show prize. Yvonne Orji does well as Rachel, a producer on the show who is often the only one aware of the reason for Dawn's behaviour, and Madison Pettis convinces as the main competitor, Lexi, an online influencer who knows the best way to play to the cameras and potentially win the show. Elsewhere, Christin Park, Madeleine Arthur, and Veronica Long are fun contestants, and both Fisher and Baranac are perfectly fine in their few main scenes.

Damian directs with a degree of competence, but no desire to lift the film above anything other than a mild distraction. Nothing feels believable once we get to the show being produced, and there are too few moments making use of the language of "reality TV". It's all just about pairing up the leads, keeping them together for a while, presenting a seemingly-insurmountable obstacle, and then having things ready for a finale that will satisfy those who picked this to revel in the cheesiness and romance. 

Writer Nicole Henrich has one other writing credit before this (something tagged as both comedy and documentary online, and I cannot find out anything else about it), but this is their first solo effort. They have an idea of the template, as we all do, but they don't have any idea about how to really season their everyday recipe.

I won't hate on this, despite not really enjoying it. Cosgrove and Fodé feel like a decent match, and that helps a lot. It's not good though, unless you're just after something to play in the background as you switch your brain off and relax. Hey, maybe that is the point. In fact, we KNOW that is how some of these Netflix features are planned. It's just not always so painfully obvious and tiresome. 

3/10

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Netflix And Chill: Irish Wish (2024)

I get it, I do. We brought some of this upon ourselves. Streaming services making their own movies leads to a larger selection of films that feel more obviously like "content" than proper movies, but that's not always a bad thing. People want content. They will happily accept some disposable fare that allows them to spend time with familiar stars or familiar genre tropes. Something like Irish Wish is worse though, because it really feels sub-par. In fact, it feels like the kind of Hallmark or Lifetime TV movies made before they honed their craft to what it is nowadays.

Lindsay Lohan plays Maddie Kelly, an editor who has a crush on her main client, author Paul Kennedy (Alexander Vlahos). She doesn't say anything though, and Paul doesn't appreciate her. He appreciates her friend, Emma (Elizabeth Tan), though, so much so that the two are eventually due to marry. In Ireland. That leads to Maddie sitting in a wishing chair and wishing that she was the one marrying Paul. Can you guess what happens next? Yes, Maddie wakes up to find that she is the one due to marry Paul. Paul may not really be the man she wants him to be though, and they may not be destined for a life together. There's something about the handsome photographer, James (Ed Speleers), hired to document the wedding though, and Maddie ends up connecting with him in a way that adds to the growing doubt she has about her wish.

This is the second film directed by Janeen Damian (her first was another recent Lohan vehicle in this vein, Falling For Christmas), but she has been a writer or producer on many movies almost just like this one. A lot of those movies were set at Christmas though, which allows viewers to forgive such silly and lightweight plotting. And if Irish Wish had also mixed in some festive trimmings then I would have allowed myself to be won over by this. There's none of that, sadly, which makes the script, written by Kirsten Hansen, feel lazy and charmless, and any enjoyment you may glean from this is all down to the gorgeousness of the setting and the work done by the main cast.

Thankfully, the main cast all do decent work. Lohan has to overdo her bemusement and wide-eyed sense of wonder whenever she is seeing new delights around her (in the Irish locale or in the people around her) and she does just fine with that, although I am also in line with the people out there who are just happy to see Lohan back on a decent career path after some time in the wilderness. Vlahos has to be selfish and inconsiderate, but is allowed to do so in a way that doesn't turn him into a complete panto villain, and he's a decent secondary male to Speleers, who has the charm and sensitivity expected of the man that our lead is ACTUALLY destined to end up with. Tan is fine, and is also spared from being turned into any kind of obvious villain, and there's a decent selection of little moments for Jane Seymour (playing the character of Maddie's mother, with all her scenes obviously having been filmed quickly and separately from everyone else).

I expected this to be cheesy, but I still hoped I would enjoy it. I knew it would be full of stereotypes, I knew it would be a predictable rom-com, and I knew how it would all end before it had even fully started. None of that would have been a problem if it didn't also feel so cheap (one taxi scene has truly dire greenscreen work) and forced into a template. It's a square peg in a round hole, sadly. Or maybe you could say it's a pint of Guinness served in a faded eggnog tumbler.

3/10

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Netflix And Chill: Falling For Christmas (2022)

Written and directed by people who largely have a decent amount of experience in the Christmas movie sub-genre (with the exception of Jeff Bonnett, the relatively new writer who helped develop the story idea into the screenplay), Falling For Christmas is the film sold on the idea that we get Lindsay Lohan in a Christmas movie. That's all you need to know. It was certainly enough to motivate me into making this a priority in my viewing schedule.

Lohan plays the spoiled and selfish Sierra Belmont, a young woman who is due to receive a marriage proposal from her narcissistic "influencer" boyfriend, Tad Fairchild (George Young). It doesn't quite go to plan though, and both Sierra and Tad end up rolling down snowy slopes in different directions. Tad ends up in the company of Ralph (Sean Dillingham) at his isolated shack. Sierra ends up being found by Jake Russell (Chord Overstreet), a young man struggling to keep his hotel lodge business solvent. She's also lost her memory, which leads to her recuperating at the lodge, where it soon becomes apparent that she doesn't know much about housekeeping. But she and Jake get along very well, and his daughter, Avy (Olivia Perez), takes a liking to her.

Janeen Damian, making her directorial debut after years spend producing this kind of fare, knows what she's doing here (basically reworking Overboard in a snowy setting, with the more problematic elements removed), and she makes sure to stick close to a box-checking script, written by Bonnett and Ron Oliver (who actually started his writing AND directing career decades ago with the second and third movies in the enjoyable Prom Night series). Nobody watching this will discover anything to surprise them, but there are a few more proper chuckles than I expected, mainly involving Tad and Ralph.

Lohan is suited to this kind of entertainment. She's still very easy to enjoy onscreen, and it's nice to see her in something that isn't trying to sell itself on the notion of showing her in a very different light (as happened with The Canyons, for example). She also convincingly portrays a good connection with Overstreet, who has apparently studied every Christmas movie ever made to refine his portrayal of the safest and blandest male romantic interest ever. Young and Dillingham are fun together, and Young is especially good value for every minute he's onscreen, wearing a selection of ridiculous wardrobe choices and always ready to stage a photo for his legion of online followers. Perez is . . . there. She does what is asked of her, but I'd have to single out her performance as particularly irritating, even when compared to other typical performances of this type (overly earnest and ready to put on the big eyes at the drop of a bauble). Alejandra Flores is the kindly gran, and I guess does okay, and Jack Wagner is the rich and powerful Beauregard Belmont, Sierra's father, and the safety net that viewers see Sierra has had all her life.

This is exactly what it sets out to be, perfectly pleasant seasonal entertainment. It just happens to have one of the unintentionally creepy Santa figures I have seen in some time. Creepy Santa aside, this is a nice springboard for Lohan to use as a more focused return to some proper movies. And if you don't think this counts as a proper movie, I urge you to try getting all the way through the dire Among The Shadows. Lohan shouldn't have had to feature in that dross, and I'll be happy if she does even just one film like this every year that saves her from ever having to be put back in that position.

6/10

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