December is finally here, which means we can now dive head-first into the 2025 Christmas movie calendar without fear or shame. I’ve been perusing the offerings on the Netflix schedule and came upon one that called to the ‘90s kid in me — A Merry Little Ex-Mas. Alicia Silverstone stars in this divorce rom-com (if that’s a thing), and the response has been tepid at best. However, I think it deserves more credit than it’s getting — except for that ending.
In A Merry Little Ex-Mas, Silverstone plays Kate, who is going through an amicable divorce (or, if we must, a “conscious uncoupling”) with husband Everett (Oliver Hudson). She plans to finally get her career back on track after setting her big-city dreams aside to support Everett’s medical practice and raise their now-grown kids. However, everything gets complicated when Kate learns that Everett has a new girlfriend (Jameela Jamil).
I Appreciated How Messy Things Got For Kate Trying To Navigate A Breakup Over The Holidays
I love a good romantic-comedy, but the textbook formula of “meet-cute/blossoming romance/small conflict due to misunderstanding/happily ever after” can get repetitive, especially if you love Hallmark’s Countdown to Christmas schedule as much as I do. Divorce is not the easiest topic to tackle in what you want to be a light-hearted holiday romp, but I respect it for its uniqueness.
Critics didn’t really agree, though, giving it just 47% on Rotten Tomatoes, while Netflix subscription holders protested even harder with just 35% on the Popcornmeter. Complaints ran the gamut from bad acting to not being funny to hating the ending (which I’ll talk about in a bit), but here’s what I liked about it.
I appreciated the exploration of a relationship that (seemingly) had run its course. No scandal, no cheating, just soon-to-be empty-nesters growing in different directions. Even with no animosity between them, though, of course the holidays would still get messy when traditions and nostalgia come into play.
Kate and Everett got flirty despite the presence of his new girlfriend, Tess, and we even saw an uglier side of the couple during a big fight that felt like one they’d had over and over, shedding some light on why they’d decided to divorce.
As for being unfunny, I personally liked that the main couple wasn’t involved in a lot of the comedy, which gave validation to what they were going through. A lot of the laughs were facilitated by their daughter’s Harry Potter-obsessed boyfriend and Pierson Fodé’s Chet, who kept the Netflix male stripper vibes alive this season as Kate’s wildly unserious suitor.
A Merry Little Ex-Mas Lost Me With Its Ending
Let this serve as a SPOILER ALERT if you don’t want to know how this all turns out, but while A Merry Little Ex-Mas tried to bend the rules of the holiday rom-com, it definitely whipped back around in the end to give Kate and Everett a disappointingly conventional “happy” ending:
The couple realized they still loved each other and decided to … consciously recouple? Un-cousciously uncouple? Whatever, they got back together.
Also, despite Kate insisting for the entirety of the movie that she was moving to Boston, because she’d spent half of her life living in a place she never wanted to be in the first place, she ultimately caved to all the guilt trips, expressing her love for the small town and deciding to stay.
Everyone on the screen may have been smiling as the credits rolled, but I was left feeling smothered on Kate’s behalf. She had finally decided to do something for herself, only to get sucked back into a marriage and town she wanted out of.
A Merry Little Ex-Mas deserves some credit for tackling divorce during the holidays, but I really wish the Netflix Christmas movie would have been brave enough to see it through to the end without pulling its punches.