With Christmas just around the corner, it is that season when Hollywood churns out feel-good films that exude fun and familiarity. These films usually are hardly groundbreaking in terms of content or narrative and exist simply to imbibe in us a feeling akin to that we have after gulping a cup of hot chocolate in cold winter. Operation Christmas Drop is one such film that apart from being a ‘cheer-spreader’, also manages to act as a commercial for the US Army.
Based on the US Military’s mission/humanitarian airlift of the same name, deployed out of Guam, Operation Christmas Drop, you can immediately see, is a film riddled with cliché. The leads are opposites who, of course, find their way back to each other after a series of serendipities. On one side is Captain Andrew (Alexander), who wants to provide Christmas gifts for people in the remote islands around. On the other is Erica (Kat), an aide of a Congresswoman who wants to shut down the base because of budget cuts. What happens then when this do-gooder, the epitome of all things Christmas, meets the pragmatist, who is the Grinch of sorts? There are no doubts about the end of this holiday film that follows a time-tested template to a T.
What keeps such films ticking is the charm of the leads and an eggnog-type kick to the age-old cliché, and
on that count, Operation Christmas Drop isn’t quite the slam dunk it wishes it were. But it isn’t all bad either. Take, for instance, the scene where Andrew asks a skeptical Erica to dance with abandon. She says her dancing skills aren’t great, and the setting is to make us believe that she is indeed a brilliant dancer who is just shy. When the music begins, and she dances, the crowd is stunned. Andrew is stupefied too. He reaches out to her and asks her to stop because she truly is terrible. It is a warm moment that breaks cliché associated with the genre and gives us a relatable moment of reality amid all the fluff. However, this film needed to have many more such moments to be more consistently enjoyable.
A positive of Operation Christmas Drop is its gorgeous setting. The scenic beauty of Micronesia adds much-needed zing to the proceedings. This beauty, unfortunately, doesn’t mask the tempestuous conditions these islanders live through daily. It makes you realise how the holiday spirit is truly about giving, and it’s a point it makes with a message that’s gift-wrapped in Christmas colours with a neat bow tied on top. The film’s par for the course without ever rising above the limitations of the genre or showing any real intent to either.