'The Merry Gentlemen' Divides Critics

         On November 20, 2024, Netflix released 'The Merry Gentlemen', which has divided critics. In the film, "To save her parents' small-town performing venue, a former big-city dancer decides to stage an all-male, Christmas-themed revue." The ensemble cast includes Britt Robertson, Colt Prattes, Maxwell Caulfield, Chad Michael Murray, Marla Sokoloff, Marc Anthony Samuel, Hector David Jr., and Beth Broderick. But what did the critics say?

        Sarah Musnicky of But Why Tho? A Geek Community says, "Because, on Murray’s end, Luke’s feelings for Ashley are pretty obvious. From the facial expressions, his physicality, and his actions towards Ashley during the story, there’s something there. But it’s unclear throughout The Merry Gentlemen that Ashley reciprocates. Instead, the love almost registers as one-sided despite Murray’s best efforts to generate chemistry. Something manifests towards the end. And even then, it’s a stretch. Putting aside the romance element, The Merry Gentlemen is held together by its delightful premise of saving a small business. With more towns becoming increasingly devoid of character as people move out to the cities, there’s a reason why saving the family business is a good old classic in romance, especially around the holidays. The extra special flair of having an all-male dance revue come to save the day is a lovely touch that works to bring in viewers but also reminds us that creativity can and will save the day."

Photo by Kevin Fitzgerald on Unsplash

        Benjamin Lee of Guardian notes, "It’s the classic tale of a woman lured back from the city by the charms of the small town (Be less ambitious! Be more married!) and while it’s slightly less gendered than the very worst of these films (we only get one scene of her cooking with her mother), it’s still preaching the same message. The potential raunch of the set-up is handled with maximum coyness and rather than even lightly dealing with the tensions that could arise from the increasingly puritanical world of small-town America handling a show built around female arousal, it’s just a delivery service for another by-the-numbers city girl meets small-town boy romance (despite being a successful Broadway dancer, Ashley is also, of course, an accident prone klutz in front of a man with a six-pack). There are blink-and-missed flashes of self-awareness (a character watches another Netflix Christmas movie, Murray’s lumber-jock is referred to as a “Hallmark handyman”), but it’s mostly just autopilot fluff without enough charm or Christmas spirit to get us on board. Robertson, who was once pushed as Hollywood’s Next Best Thing in films like Tomorrowland and The Longest Ride, is too bland of a lead, her romance with Murray too cut-and-paste for us to care and the journey from debt to victory far too easy to wake anyone out of an eggnog coma. The stakes here are too low and so is the entertainment value. I predict another hit."

        Samantha Bergeson of indieWire was less impressed, stating, "Murray and Robertson feel tired as leads, and while Murray is making it work onstage, the more conventional scenes all feel like they’re missing some holiday spice (among other things)." Concluding, "Beth Broderick is a standout, mostly for nostalgic purposes. And it’s really saying something when the most peppy and heartfelt scenes in “The Merry Gentlemen” come from the grandmother character."