An Unremarkable Christmas is a Spanish language film on Netflix that directly links to the series The Unremarkable Juanquini, which is also available to watch on the same platform. The film is set before the events of the first series as Juanquini himself (Antonio Sanint,) El Ñato (Biassini Segurand) and Captain González (Júlio César Herrera) share one Christmas wish; for each to be courageous enough to change their lives the way they see fit. One specific character enters in their dream cloud that could finally grant their wishes.

As An Unremarkable Christmas is really the ‘Christmas special’ of the matching series, it is incredibly difficult to find it remarkable as a standalone film. For television series such as Father Ted, Friends or The Royal Family, a ‘Christmas special’ episode can easily be enjoyed by anyone as it can stand proudly alone as an insert episode — just with a festive theme attached. In regards to other series, for example Peep Show, which are a lot more quirky and are extremely more intriguing when the viewer has already made a connection with the characters, it is almost strenuous to expect those who are not necessarily existing fans to thoroughly enjoy it. That’s how I feel about An Unremarkable Christmas. Although I don’t see myself watching the series separately anyway as the chaotic comedy just isn’t my style, I know for certain that if you have watched the series and celebrated its making then you’ll appreciate the film in this holiday season.

To expand upon my mentioning of chaotic comedy, the entirety of this film is tremendously upbeat with sparks of blazing energy in each scene. At no point does the pace of events slow down or appear to be calmer than a minute previous; it is obvious that the acting is supposed to be somewhat exaggerated for this type of whirlwind experience. Unfortunately the jokes deliberately written into the script didn’t evoke laughs from me as an audience member, the extent of my expression was maybe a slight giggle. I was expecting my reactions to be increased from that due to the bountiful liveliness, however the comedic remarks and underlying laugh factors didn’t seem to deliver. Despite this, I was still able to feed off this energy anyway as its simply inescapable. There’s no doubt that you’ll find yourself smiling unknowingly at least once.

Though I did state that the acting is set to be exaggerated, that is far from an insult to the range of abilities seen from the cast. Because this exaggeration was planned and directed to match the film, the performances are brilliant. The whole cast perfectly brightens the personalities of their characters and continue to spread vibrancy throughout the scenes presented; I’m genuinely quite impressed by this aspect.

An Unremarkable Christmas may not be your first festive film choice, but if you are looking for a new series to watch then The Unremarkable Juanquini can be a viable option and the film can seamlessly follow that viewing. Overall, An Unremarkable Christmas actually does a wonderful job at amplifying a joyous environment for the holidays. ¡Feliz Navidad!