Movie Review: Hot Frosty (2024)

Synopsis: After losing her husband to cancer, Kathy Barrett is struggling to keep her life together, letting her house fall apart while she barely takes care of herself. When she sees a barely dressed man, Jack, standing out of the cold, she invites him into her diner, so he doesn't freeze to death. What she doesn't know is Jack is a snowman she accidentally brought to life by giving him a scarf.

Who's in it? The movie stars Lacey Chabert, Dustin Milligan, Lauren Holly, Katy Mixon Greer and Craig Robinson.

Review: It's just not the holiday season in our house unless my wife and I watch a Lacey Chabert Christmas movie. Those are normally produced by Hallmark but in this case, we were interested in seeing Hot Frosty on Netflix. As it turns out, it was a good choice.

There were a lot of things to like about this movie. For one, I thought Jack (Milligan) was a great character. He had a good mix of humor and innocence that helped create quite a few funny scenes involving him, especially with how all the older ladies in town were obsessing over him after seeing him fixing a roof without a shirt. I also thought there was decent chemistry between Jack and Kathy (Chabert). They were believable as friends and that made the inevitable romance more believable in turn.

That said, the most memorable character in this movie had to be Sheriff Nathaniel Hunter (Robinson), the overly obsessed lawman who was trying to prove Jack was the man people spotted streaking through town before breaking into a local business for his clothes. While he technically could be considered the villain, especially since he continued to dislike Jack even as everyone else in town began to like him, I liked how his motivations were sincere. He just didn't like the idea of someone breaking the law while the town was under his watch and blamed himself for the crimes happening.

This obsession also led to a surprisingly suspenseful ending, with Jack (who couldn't stand being in warm places because he was made of snow) finding his life in danger and Kathy being powerless to help him. Since it was a romantic comedy, I was fully expecting a happy ending but did wonder if he was only going to be in her life just long enough to teach her to love again.

Probably the only thing I would change about the movie is I wish it would have a bit more mystery surrounding Jack. While there was a healthy amount of skepticism from Kathy and others relating to the snowman brought to life storyline, the movie didn't make any effort to add to the skepticism by creating a plausible alternative explanation, so the truth wouldn't be known for sure until the very end. It wasn't a big deal, but a little extra mystery never hurts.

Final Opinion: I wasn't sure what to expect from this film, but it turned out to be a fun holiday-themed romantic comedy my wife and I both enjoyed watching. I don't know if I would list it as one of my new favorites, but I had no regrets choosing it.

My Grade: A