And that’s the last we’ll be seeing of this couple together for a while.
AMAZON, GETTY
What’s
the opposite of a meet-cute? Whatever it is sees new couple James (Asa Butterfield) and Hayley (Cora Kirk) spending their first Christmas apart – each hoping to surprise the other with a spontaneous visit and both ending up stranded at their in-laws’ house alone. “It’s sort of a backwards romcom,” laughs director Jim O’Hanlon, making his feature debut after honing his comedy chops on the likes of TV’s Catastrophe and Trying. “Tone is the hardest thing to nail on a Christmas film. You want it to be warm and you want it to be emotional and you want it to be funny, but it also needs to feel real. I wanted it to pretty much be the opposite of whatever they run on those 24/7 Christmas movie channels…”