Summary
Christmas Crossfire is stimulating, action-filled and has slight sinister humour. It does let itself down slightly with the repetitiveness, but then it circles back to an aggressive finale in the third act.
This review of Netflix German film Christmas Crossfire contains no spoiler. The drama will be released on the streaming service on December 4, 2020.
Christmas Crossfire is quite the experience. While it is laced with some slight comedy, it slowly pushes into the crime and thriller aspect with ease with characters ready to be sinister and light wherever the script takes them. The German film adheres to the “cat and mouse” chase, keeps it as violent as it needs to be while also managing to maintain the story with an air of measured silliness.
The story stays close to Christmas time; Samuel is trying to impress a woman he’s just met named Edda with spontaneous sex in the woods. Samuel ends up distracted and foils a murder near his location and ends up fleeing from the gang of killers with the intended target. There are two narrative strands; Samuel trying to flee and stay alive while Edda tries to find him by recruiting help.
One of the small problems with Christmas Crossfire is that it does repeat the same issues; the villains are hamming their performances home, and while it isn’t overbearing, with 105 minutes, it can get a little irritating.
But what the film does well introduces a variety of characters to keep the madness going. With each act, the scenarios intensify, leading to a survival final act where the characters are naturally leading to a grand finale. While the other international film that was released today (Leyla Everlasting) tries to introduce as many gags and scenarios as possible, Christmas Crossfire stays level-headed and grounded, with a clear defining objective to aim for.
Christmas Crossfire is stimulating, action-filled and has slight sinister humour. It does let itself down slightly with the repetitiveness, but then it circles back to an aggressive finale in the third act.
