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Netflix’s ‘A Merry Little Ex-Mas’ is an Outdated Mess
Why this film left me angry instead of comforted
A Merry Little Ex-Mas was only my second Christmas watch this year, after My Secret Santa. I was excited to see Alicia Silverstone back on my screen and was looking forward to a relaxed, cosy evening of Christmas viewing. What I got instead was a set of tired tropes — women absorbing the stress of holding a family together, making invisible sacrifices, silently enduring, with no meaningful regaining of agency by the end of the film. And it made my blood boil.
Kate (played by Silverstone) and Everett (played by Oliver Hudson) are a married couple with two kids — one in college at Oxford, the other soon to graduate high school. The family live in the small town where Everett grew up. He works as a doctor and she works as a handywoman. In the past, Kate had big dreams of changing the world as an eco-architect, dreams she gave up on to move with Everett and raise a family. The couple have been separated close to a year, and this is where we, the viewers, enter their world.
Kate and Everett are planning to formalise their divorce, and unbeknownst to the other, are both keeping big secrets: Everett has a girlfriend, and Kate is planning to sell their (former) family home (‘The Mothership’) and move to Boston to finally realise…
