Wendy Ide 

Boxing Day review – black British romcom plays it safe

Likable performances carry Aml Ameen’s festive meet-the-family feature that sticks a little too closely to the Richard Curtis formula
  
  

Aja Naomi King and Aml Ameen in Boxing Day.
Adding the sparkle… Aja Naomi King and, behind her, Aml Ameen in Boxing Day. Photograph: Laura Radford

A black British spin on the Richard Curtis formula, Boxing Day recycles plenty of the Christmas romcom themes – lots of extravagant public declarations of love; an entire plot that hangs on the fact that key characters fail to tell each other basic information – and sets them to a glossily antiseptic musical accompaniment courtesy of Little Mix star Leigh-Anne Pinnock.

Aml Ameen directs and stars, playing a successful, Hollywood-based novelist returning home to visit his extended British Caribbean family in London for Christmas with his American fiancee, Lisa (a likable Aja Naomi King), in tow. A charismatic cast inject some sparkle, but the contrived plotting and thin characterisation take some of the shine off this festive bauble.

Watch a trailer for Boxing Day.
 

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