REVIEW: ‘Jingle Bell Heist’ Questions Who Is Naughty Or Nice

The holiday season is typically advertised as the most wonderful time of the year. However, in Jingle Bell Heist, the realities of wealth disparity weigh heavily as desperation and frustration birth a rather ill-conceived plot to rob the villain of its tale.

While the seriousness occasionally overpowers the bursts of humor throughout, this latest holiday heist film to hit Netflix thrives in its protagonists’ relatable struggles, continuously building a case to root for them, and maybe, just maybe, a crooked, wealthy businessman can finally get their just desserts. 

Starting in media res, we’re introduced to our two leads right before the heist begins. The dialogue here is just enough to hint at something deeper between the two before Jingle Bell Heist jumps backwards in time by two weeks. Here, we meet Sophia Martin (Olivia Holt), working at a giant department store, tressed up and ready for the Christmas holidays. The pressure is on for Sophia and the other workers to maintain the store’s immaculate condition for minimal pay, a familiar problem for many. 

Little does Sophia know that her boss, Maxwell Sterling (Peter Serafinowicz), is not the only one watching. She’s caught the eye of Nick O’Connor (Connor Swindells), a former security consultant, now phone technician, who is tapped into Sterling’s store’s security system.

While tapped in, she catches her having achieved a costly sleight of hand, prompting him to confront her and perhaps loop her into his plans to screw Sterling over. Thus, the titular heist is born. Well, until someone beats them to the punch.

Jingle Bell Heist rests squarely on the relatable desperation of its downtrodden leads.

While Santa Claus would most certainly put Sophia and Nick on his naughty list, the Jingle Bell Heist screenplay, co-written by Abby McDonald and Amy Reed, builds each character’s backstory to give the audience plenty to cling to. For Sophia, she’s literally drowning in debt trying to keep her sick mother alive, yet the medical system she thought might save her (alas, the NHS is just not equipped) is asking for more than she can give.

As for Nick, he’s trying to rebuild his life after finishing his prison sentence. However, with an increasingly difficult cost-of-living crisis and now carrying a record on him, it’s nigh impossible for him to try to eke out a living that will satisfy his ex-wife and let him see his daughter. It’s in the fleshing out of these struggles in Jingle Bell Heist that empathy is evoked, even if the plan they hatch and the lengths to which both Sophia and Nick go are incredibly ludicrous. 

From crashing parties to donning silly get-ups, these two are completely out of their element. It makes sense, though. They are two ordinary people. Up against the incredibly one-note villain, Maxwell, who is played with utmost snobbery by Peter Serafinowicz, failure is more likely than not. And yet, so much is done to ensure that we absolutely need them to succeed. Their success means a hope worthy of the Christmas holiday and spirit.

Yes, there’s romance, but it honestly didn’t need to be there with everything else going on.

It can be easy for Sophia and Nick’s struggles to fully take over Jingle Bell Heist, and sometimes they do due to a lack of tonal balance. Some mid-film pacing drag doesn’t help either, as the two prepare for the big day, but the scenes themselves help sink the audience further into these characters’ worlds. An argument can be made for reducing these scenes to improve flow, but they can also be read as the calm before the storm they’re about to wade into.

However, what helps things from getting too dark is the spots of humor, particularly the physical comedy, that add an extra laugh to things. Whether it’s Olivia Holt sliding dramatically into a security box, the awkwardness of Nick being coached into flirtation, or literally crashing through a roof, there’s enough here to keep things light and silly, even when things hit a little too close to reality. 

What doesn’t quite hit, despite it being an expected outcome, is the romantic element in Jingle Bell Heist. Part of this is due to a general lack of romantic chemistry between the two leads; their growing partnership resonates more platonically, building a foundation more akin to work colleagues. Because of this, the inclusion of a romantic development, while understandable as part of the genre, ultimately just rang hollow. 

Romance issues aside, Jingle Bell Heist is about the heist of it all, and sometimes, that’s all you need. While the planning is absolutely ludicrous at times, challenging the suspension of disbelief, Sophia and Nick, as characters, with their sad situations and their general earnestness and commitment to the crime, make you desperately want them to succeed even when the plan itself has so many holes in it that you might as well have Swiss Cheese. 

Jingle Bell Heist is now streaming exclusively on Netflix.