Getting Freaky at Christmas
When Jerry Craig (Dondre Whitfield) was young his father died and being the eldest son became the man of the house with a plan for his life. Well things didn't work out as not only did he not go on to become the lawyer he planned he became a soon to be divorced dad, living one pay check to the next, working in a coffee shop and caring for his mother, Clara (Stella Doyle), who has Alzheimer's. Whilst Jerry ended up being the man of his house his younger brother Ellis (Christian Keyes) went on to become a hot shot lawyer in LA with more money than he can spend. But things take an interesting turn when Jerry having wished he could trade places with his little brother wakes in his brother's body, leading his player life in LA. Meanwhile Ellis wakes up in Jerry's body back in Louisiana and with his mother who often gets confused over her son's names.
Oh yes "The Christmas Swap" is another body swap comedy and actually the second one I have watched from the 2016 crop of made for TV Christmas movies. And so let me just say a big chunk of "The Christmas Swap" is predictable as we have the confusion which comes with body swaps with Ellis in Jerry's body struggling being back home whilst Jerry in Ellis' body finding things eye opening being his wealthy brother. But on top of that we get a bit of "Dave" as whilst Jerry is in Ellis' body he gets to do the right thing which is not how the normal money hungry Ellis usually is and even wants to take a case to court rather than settle.
But this is where "The Christmas Swap" gets entertaining, and I don't mean bringing just a touch of Christmas spirit to things as they get to understand each other's lives a bit more. Usually in these sorts of movies alongside the confusion comedy you get the attempts of the two of them trying to swap back to how they were. But in this case we have something different with one of them not wanting to switch back, and I won't tell you which. What that means is that we get just enough freshness to it stop it from being just another movie trading on the body swap, "Freaky Friday" storyline.
What this all boils down to is that "The Christmas Swap" is in truth more entertaining than I was expecting and has a nice wholesome side to it which along with some fresh ideas lifts it from being just another predictable "Freaky Friday" set at Christmas, movie.
Tags: TV Christmas Movies, Christmas Movies
