'Ghosting The Spirit of Christmas' Review: The Freeform flick isn't exactly a feel-good holiday film but offers a much-needed reality check
'Ghosting The Spirit of Christmas' just dropped on Freeform and it did not exactly live up to all the hype around it although it did succeed in bringing a significant message to people who need to hear about it.
'Ghosting' is a term used for a person who doesn't show up after a date, and in this case, it happens to be Jess (Aisha Dee). She goes out on a date with Ben and on her way back, she meets with an accident that claims her life.
When Jess doesn't return Ben's calls or doesn't meet him, he thinks that she ghosted him. He has no clue about what happened to her. When she returns, he confronts her about it only to find out that she's turned into a ghost.
Despite the funeral and people praying for her soul to rest in peace, she gets trapped and her soul is unable to ascend into the next realm. Nobody except her best friend Kara (Kimiko Glenn) and Ben can see her and talk to her. She remains a wandering spirit until she figures out a way to find salvation.
The movie depicts the importance of friendship and how one needs to nurture it so that it lasts, even beyond realms. It is an emotionally-heavy film because losing your best friend and knowing that you'll never see them again is worse than a break-up.
The story has very little to do with Christmas; neither are there any festive vibes nor is anybody even talking about the holidays. However, it is only towards the end of the film that we see the significance of Christmas Eve.
Everything in the film is predictable and Christmas is a faint background for the film's plotline to unfurl.
On the bright side, the movie reminds us of other Christmas classics such as 'A Christmas Carol' and 'It's A Wonderful Life' that revolves around the theme of death during Christmas.
Ghosts are synonymous with Christmas, thanks to Charles Dickens, and this film takes this concept quite literally. However, it veers away from regular comedy ghost tropes and actually adds a human touch to the supernatural.
For instance, when Jess passes away and realizes her soul is trapped, she literally goes "Oh man" in an almost comic fashion, that reminds us that she is still human inside.
She ends up messing with Ben and Kara's life by using them to redeem herself. Although she is portrayed as a selfish spirit wandering about trying to find her purpose and attain salvation, she learns quite a lot about her own life on Earth.
Instead of leaving on a bad note, she tries to make amends and fix her mistakes before leaving for good.
Behind every dark cloud has a silver lining, and in Jess' case, she develops a strong character arc and goes from being insensitive and reckless to finding joy in simple things and seeing how happy life really is.
Now that she is dead, all she needs to do is satisfy her last wish before she bids farewell to her Earthly stay. How she does that is for us to know and you to find out when you watch the movie. Spoiler alert: Jess ghosts Ben once again even after death!
'Ghosting The Spirit of Christmas' premiered on Freeform on December 4.