Let It Snow (2019)

Let It Snow arrived on Netflix in November 2019 with a simple pitch: take three interlocking love stories, set them in a fictional small town on Christmas Eve, add a once-in-a-century blizzard, and see what happens. Based on the 2008 YA novel by John Green, Maureen Johnson, and Lauren Myracle, the film tries to be the teen ensemble answer to Love Actually. It doesn't quite get there, but it gets close enough to earn a permanent spot on the December rewatch list.

The Cast of Let It Snow Makes It Work

Director Luke Snellin had one major advantage: a cast stacked with young actors who could sell underwritten material through sheer charisma. Isabela Merced plays Julie, a college-bound senior caring for her sick mother, who winds up stranded on a train with pop star Stuart Bale (Shameik Moore). Their storyline is the most conventional and the most grounded. Merced anchors the film with genuine emotional weight, and Moore brings a quiet exhaustion to his character's fame that feels honest rather than manufactured.

Kiernan Shipka plays Angie, nicknamed "The Duke," a tomboy who watches her platonic best friend Tobin (Mitchell Hope) finally realize the obvious. It is the most predictable arc in the film. Shipka still makes it land, mostly by refusing to play Angie as anything other than a sharp, self-possessed person who happens to be in a teen rom-com.

Odeya Rush and Liv Hewson round out the third storyline as Addie and Dorrie, best friends navigating a rocky patch after Addie discovers her boyfriend cheated. Dorrie's subplot involves a Waffle Town crush on a girl named Kerry, giving the film its most genuinely sweet romantic thread.

And then there's Joan Cusack, wandering through the movie wrapped in tinfoil as a mysterious homeless woman. She has roughly seven minutes of screen time and uses every second of it like she's performing a one-act play at an off-Broadway theater.

Based on the Book by John Green, Maureen Johnson, and Lauren Myracle

The source material, Let It Snow: Three Holiday Romances, is not a traditional novel. Published in 2008, it collects three interconnected novellas set in the fictional town of Gracetown during a Christmas blizzard. Each author wrote one story: Maureen Johnson's "The Jubilee Express," John Green's "A Cheertastic Christmas Miracle," and Lauren Myracle's "The Patron Saint of Pigs."

The film adaptation takes significant liberties. The town name changed from Gracetown to Laurel, Illinois. The beloved Waffle House of the book became Waffle Town (presumably for trademark reasons). Julie's parents, who in the book get arrested in a riot over collectible Christmas village figurines, are replaced by a mother battling cancer. The pig subplot from Myracle's story is gone entirely.

These changes flatten some of the book's quirkier edges. The arrested-parents plotline was absurd in the best way, and swapping it for a cancer subplot loads the film with a seriousness it doesn't always know how to carry. But screenwriters Kay Cannon, Victoria Strouse, and Laura Solon do weave the three stories together more tightly than the book managed, creating genuine crossover moments that the original anthology format couldn't achieve.

Christmas Eve in Waffle Town

The Waffle Town diner functions as the film's gravitational center. All three storylines converge there, and the movie is at its best when the entire cast shares the same space. The climactic party sequence, where the diner fills with teenagers, a DJ booth appears out of nowhere, and Joan Cusack's tinfoil woman delivers a quiet monologue, is pure holiday chaos in the best possible way.

Luke Snellin's direction is competent if unremarkable. He handles the interlocking timelines cleanly, and the film looks warmer than most Netflix originals of its era. The snow-covered Ontario locations (standing in for small-town Illinois) photograph beautifully. Where the direction falters is in pacing: at 93 minutes, the film still feels like it has too many characters and not enough time for any of them.

The Christmas Eve setting does the heavy lifting that the script sometimes can't. There is a specific quality to the way people behave on December 24th, a mix of anticipation and restlessness, that the film captures well. Characters make impulsive choices because it's Christmas Eve and that's what you do. The blizzard traps everyone in place, forcing the kinds of honest conversations that people normally avoid.

Is Let It Snow Worth Watching?

Let It Snow holds an 85% on Rotten Tomatoes from critics, though the average rating of 5.7 out of 10 tells a more honest story. It is a film that most people enjoy while acknowledging it's not great. The cast elevates material that would be forgettable with lesser actors. The Christmas atmosphere is thick and genuine. The soundtrack, featuring a rendition of the classic "Let It Snow" alongside contemporary tracks, sets the holiday mood effectively.

The film's biggest weakness is structural. Three love stories in 93 minutes means none of them gets enough room to breathe. Stuart and Julie's relationship develops at warp speed. Tobin's realization about Angie comes exactly when the plot needs it rather than when a real person would have it. Dorrie and Kerry's romance, which is arguably the most emotionally satisfying thread, gets the least screen time.

For a Netflix Christmas movie aimed at teens, though, Let It Snow clears the bar by a comfortable margin. It respects its characters enough to give them real problems alongside the holiday rom-com formula. Julie's mother is dying. Stuart hates being famous. Addie has to confront being a bad friend. The film doesn't solve any of these problems cleanly, and that honesty is its quiet strength. The last shot of the film is the town of Laurel buried in snow on Christmas morning, the kind of image that makes you want to look out your own window and check.