‘Jingle Bell Heist’ Overview: Netflix’s Christmas Caper Retains the 2025 Sizzling Streak Alive

It’s been a strong begin for the 2025 Netflix Authentic Vacation Movies so far, with constructive opinions for the 2 main Christmastime Rom-Coms, A Merry Little Ex-Mas starring Alicia Silverstone & Champagne Issues starring Minka Kelly. Whereas this week’s style performs extra in opposition to sort with against the law at its heart, can Netflix make it 3 for 3 with their streaming vacation fare?

From Ace Leisure (Love At First Sight, XO, Kitty) & Teashop Movies (I Want You All The Finest), Jingle Bell Heist is the newest romantically inclined movie from director Michael Fimognari, who has made fairly the title for himself at Netflix between his path of the ultimate 2 movies within the To All The Boys I’ve Beloved Earlier than trilogy and his horror mini-series collaborations with creator Mike Flanagan (The Fall of the Home of Usher, The Midnight Membership, Midnight Mass). The movie is written by Bridgerton story editor/workers author Abby McDonald, whose screenplay for the movie had beforehand appeared on the 2022 Hollywood “Black Record” of the most-liked unproduced works.

Set in London at Christmastime, the story facilities on two small-time thieves of kinds, underneath appreciated & financially constrained retail worker Sophia (Coronary heart Eyes star Olivia Holt) & tech savvy ex-con Nick (Intercourse Schooling co-star Connor Swindells), who’ve their eyes on the identical Christmas Eve rating: robbing London’s most infamous division retailer, or extra particularly its proprietor Maxwell Sterling (Guardians of the Galaxy’s Peter Serafinowicz). Pressured into an uneasy alliance, as secrets and techniques floor and emotions for one another deepen, Sophia and Nick put their relationship and the heist in jeopardy.

The remainder of the ensemble consists of: Lucy Punch (A Collection of Unlucky Occasions) as Maxwell’s spouse Cynthia, Natasha Joseph as Sophia’s mom Rita, & Michael Salami as Nick’s flatmate Ralph.

Now, there are such a lot of shades of vacation movies, particularly on the streaming providers that make it a full cottage business this time of yr. After all, there may be the straight-up Christmas-focused, Santa-centered magical vacation movie. Then, you have got the Netflix model of a Lifetime/Hallmark film with extra TV high quality look & really feel that has a lightweight contact & some vacation magic added to a romantic entanglement. And lastly, you have got the upper high quality model of this, the place Christmastime is extra of a backdrop and an essence to a rom-com or household drama that perhaps wouldn’t have been greenlit in any other case.

Jingle Bell Heist appears to take the latter instance and provides it a recent replace, full with a brand new style mix & a extra polished cinematic look than most of its friends within the area. Director & Cinematographer Michael Fimognari is an absolute X-factor, a cheat code of kinds, to deliver such type & vibrancy to the movie with vivid colours, monitoring pictures, & a tonal consistency that elevates above the streaming vacation label; a refined smash-up of his digital camera & manufacturing design of the To All The Boys movies combined with a bounce of a extra conventional cozy caper.

Whereas the story may be simple & typically very forgiving to its leads’ capabilities as criminals, Abby McDonald’s script rides all of the wonderful strains created by a vacation titled movie with against the law at its heart, naturally carried out by two folks in a budding romance whereas residing day-to-day in a state of monetary issue & familial problems. A film comparable to this has to have: a largely plausible non-violent crime that solves an issue folks battle with throughout the holidays, likeable lead characters with sufficient felony intelligence to tug off the caper & sufficient plausible chemistry to need them to succeed, AND a smidge of vacation attraction that justifies the season and placement by which it takes place. Jingle Bell Heist checks all these containers, servicing followers of every style, displayed with an added story twist certain to thrill modern-day audiences who might have their sights set on morally bankrupt millionaires.

On the efficiency facet, Holt & Swindells promote their private points and their slowly forming partnership – in each sense of the time period – with a levelheaded sense of realism and a wholesome collision of wants turning to desires. They want the cash, they should present for his or her family members, however additionally they need to break away from their present stations and stay. Because the pair be taught to belief and even admire one another, Holt & Swindells’ chemistry grows as properly; not overselling or outshining the private, however satisfying in its conclusion.

The script has simply sufficient humor as properly, offered in a number of scenes the place Sophia and/or Nick get to play dress-up or create new identities; Nick as an indignant retailer patron or tempting man sweet at a Gala, or perhaps Sophia as a high-class southern belle on the lookout for a protected. Nick’s flatmate Ralph, performed by Michael Salami, will get a number of snort strains as properly; whether or not his fears of dozens of individuals all dressed the identical, just like the time he encountered a conference of Shreks, or his confusion about his cousin being both in MI6 or simply proudly owning a tux.

General, Jingle Bell Heist shouldn’t be solely the most effective of the Netflix vacation movies to this point this yr, but in addition a pleasant style mix that appears and feels higher than most streaming movies you’ll see. It’s balanced, it’s measured, it’s enjoyable, and it provides you with precisely what you’re in search of in an enthralling heist movie. Holt & Swindells don’t oversell the romance to permit the story to blossom, but in addition have sufficient “associates turned admirers” vitality to deliver us dwelling. Director/Cinematographer Michael Fimognari will get tone, look, & circulate higher than most, whether or not it’s a desaturated fright from his work with Mike Flanagan or the colourful hues and emotional heat of a romance-infused style movie. His fingerprints deliver McDonald’s “Black Record” script to life on the proper time of yr.

---

Watch Jingle Bell Heist If You Favored

• Out of Sight
• To All The Boys Trilogy
• All Is Vivid
• Love at First Sight

---

MVP of Jingle Bell Heist

Director/Cinematographer Michael Fimognari

Once I spoke to Fimognari throughout the press run for the ultimate To All The Boys movie, he stated that the trilogy appealed to him due to its “earnestness” in a “heightened universe” setting that reminds us that there’s a “probability for us to be good to at least one one other”. So it ought to come as no shock that his newest movie would additionally strike a steadiness between the baseline of doing the best issues and main with compassion whereas being entertaining inside the framework of its style.

Whereas being a gifted cinematographer and now as a director doing each jobs, Fimognari all the time lets the story dictate his visible language. Jingle Bell Heist is aware of when to be winking on the Soderbergh bounciness of a heist movie with coloration, digital camera motion, & sillier scene transitions and when to remain grounded to the extra human parts that get you to the ultimate rating. Whereas I do know he shall be again capturing “Carrie” for Flanagan, I’ll all the time look ahead to what he brings subsequent as a dynamic director who lets the story take him over.

Jingle Bell Heist is a lower above your common vacation movie to the purpose it shouldn’t be in contrast. It’s a comfy caper with simply sufficient actuality & humor to make you imagine in justice as a lot as you imagine in vacation magic.