Joy is a successful cookbook author whose books are built around her family — her husband Max, her two children, and her parents. She is also very private and protects her family from the media. But now her sponsor wants to broadcast a live show from her home at Christmas, where she is to introduce her family. Joy protests but is soon forced to go along with it. The problem? She doesn’t have a family. She has to recruit her best friend, Max, to play her husband, the neighbour’s children to be her own, the housekeeper to play her mother, and the mailman to be her father. A recipe for disaster?
I’ve seen similar stories before, and this one works as a romantic film. At times it’s a bit funny with its complications. But you can’t help reflecting on all the time Joy and Max have wasted. It is, however, nice to see Chad Michael Murray in a role where he isn’t as smug as he can be in other films.
