In “The Merry Gentlemen” with Chad Michael Murray, a young woman finds true love thanks to strippers
It's been a long time, but sometime in the 2010s they were-Films withreally a thing: completely à laDancers appeared in it and took off their clothes - in a subplot, a dancer fell in love and had to reconcile a strip show and true love.
This principle is now put into a Santa Claus outfit, transported to a small American town with a banal name and, hey presto – Netflix has the next onepublished. “The Merry Gentlemen” is a very shallow Christmas film in which you can guess the ending before it actually starts - and perhaps this sprinkling is good for many people. Good this way!
“The Merry Gentlemen”: That's what it's about
Ashley is a dancer in the Christmas revue of the “Jingle Belles” (in real life it would be the legendary Rockettes), but loses her gig shortly before Christmas because she –– is replaced by a younger dancer. What else can she do but return to her snowy hometown of Sycamore Creek (actually it's a film studio in California), where her parents and sister run a live club and a diner and where Ashley has been for years (!)war.
But when she arrives, the ejected Broadway dancer receives news from Knecht Ruprecht and not from Santa Claus: her parents' club is facing financial ruin, and there isn't even enough money for qualified craftsmen - instead, town newbie Luke is taking on all sorts of tasks (also without a shirt).
When he repairs a drain shirtless in front of Ashley in the dead of winter, because that's what Luke does, the ex-dancer then has a very surprising or obvious idea: she develops a choreography à lawith the most handsome men in the small town and saves her parents' club with this strip show. The fact that this show, cobbled together in just a few days and featuring three to five amateur dancers in a small town in front of a local audience, brought in the required $30,000 is exactly one thing: an absolutely predictable Christmas miracle.
Luke (Chad Michael Murray) and Ashley (Britt Roberston) dance together under at least one mistletoe.
NETFLIXHow naked are the men? To be honest: In just a few days they rehearse a solid strip show with construction worker and tuxedo costumes, have watched all the films in the “Magic Mike” series eight more times, dance in the diner and while cooking and thus save the club/Ashley's Family/Sycamore Creek.
And Ashley? And Ashley and Luke? Logo, predictably as “The Merry Gentlemen” is laid out, comes after a first dorky encounter and a second in which Luke naturally shows off his six-pack while doing craft work.
It's not just fans of Christmas who are happy about this, but perhaps also Chad Michael Murray's forehead, which wrinkles deeply in every possible situation and can now finally relax.
“The Merry Gentlemen”: trailer and release date
The Christmas film “The Merry Gentlemen” has been running on Netflix since November 20, 2024.
Who stars in “The Merry Gentlemen”?
Santa's Secret Helpers are known from other series in this Netflix movie: Above all, Chad Michael Murray as Luke will win the hearts of-fans beat faster, as they know him as Tristin Dugray, who had his own (love) story with Rory Gilmore (Alexis Bledel) at the Chilton private school.
Ashley is played by Britt Robertson, who is a regular cast member in the series spin-off “The Rookie: Feds”. Marla Solokoff plays Ashley's sister Marie, her mother is Beth Broderick, who we know from “Sabrina – Totally Bewitched”.
Is “The Merry Gentlemen” a good movie?
Of course not! But that doesn't matter, because the target group for theare viewers who like sugary-sweet, hyper-romantic Christmas films, have already seen “Hot Frosty” eight times since its release last week and whojust can't get enough. Everyone else is welcome to watch “The Grinch” again – “The Merry Gentlemen” definitely has the better dance scenes.
