My Dad's Christmas Date

The child who seeks to set up a divorced or a widowed parent is a common plot in holiday movies. "My Dad's Christmas Date" pulls it off fairly well, largely thanks to the performances by Jeremy Piven (as "Dad" Dave) and Olivia-Mai Barrett (as Jules, the daughter).

The movie, set in England, isn't really a romance movie as it is mostly about Dave and Jules trying to navigate the aftermath of his wife's and her mother's passing. It's even less of a Christmas movie. There's very little Christmas décor or activities. Dave is Jewish. His late wife was Anglican which mostly serves as a reason for Dave and Jules to have to suffer through a Christmas party with the in-laws. Dave is a hard-working corporate lawyer while Jules is a student at a posh private school in England (I think it's a secondary school but Barrett was 23 or 24 when the movie was made so maybe it's college). Dave's adrift and his attempt to anchor his life to work does nothing to help his resourceful but flailing daughter.

It's not an imaginative script but it gets the job done.