‘Jingle Bell Heist’ Review: Netflix’s Christmas Caper Keeps the 2025 Hot Streak Alive
Jingle Bell Heist. (L to R) Connor Swindells as Nick and Olivia Holt as Sophia in Jingle Bell Heist. Cr. Rob Baker Ashton/Netflix ©2025
It’s been a solid start for the 2025 Netflix Original Holiday Films thus far, with positive reviews for the two major Christmastime Rom-Coms, A Merry Little Ex-Mas starring Alicia Silverstone & Champagne Problems starring Minka Kelly. While this week’s genre plays more against type with a crime at its center, can Netflix make it 3 for 3 with their streaming holiday fare?
From Ace Entertainment (Love At First Sight, XO, Kitty) & Teashop Films (I Wish You All The Best), Jingle Bell Heist is the latest romantically inclined film from director Michael Fimognari, who has made quite the name for himself at Netflix between his direction of the final 2 films in the To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before trilogy and his horror mini-series collaborations with creator Mike Flanagan (The Fall of the House of Usher, The Midnight Club, Midnight Mass). The film is written by Bridgerton story editor/staff writer Abby McDonald, whose screenplay for the film had previously appeared on the 2022 Hollywood “Black List” of the most-liked unproduced works.
Set in London at Christmastime, the story centers on two small-time thieves of sorts, under appreciated & financially constrained retail employee Sophia (Heart Eyes star Olivia Holt) & tech savvy ex-con Nick (Sex Education co-star Connor Swindells), who have their eyes on the same Christmas Eve score: robbing London’s most notorious department store, or more specifically its owner Maxwell Sterling (Guardians of the Galaxy’s Peter Serafinowicz). Forced into an uneasy alliance, as secrets surface and feelings for each other deepen, Sophia and Nick put their relationship and the heist in jeopardy.
The rest of the ensemble includes: Lucy Punch (A Series of Unfortunate Events) as Maxwell’s wife Cynthia, Natasha Joseph as Sophia’s mother Rita, & Michael Salami as Nick’s flatmate Ralph.
Jingle Bell Heist. (L to R) Connor Swindells as Nick in Jingle Bell Heist. Cr. Rob Baker Ashton/Netflix ©2025
Now, there are so many shades of holiday films, especially on the streaming services that make it a full cottage industry this time of year. Of course, there is the straight-up Christmas-focused, Santa-centered magical holiday film. Then, you have the Netflix version of a Lifetime/Hallmark movie with more TV quality look & feel that has a light touch & some holiday magic added to a romantic entanglement. And lastly, you have the higher quality version of this, where Christmastime is more of a backdrop and an essence to a rom-com or family drama that maybe wouldn’t have been greenlit otherwise.
Jingle Bell Heist seems to take the latter example and give it a fresh update, complete with a new genre blend & a more polished cinematic look than most of its peers in the space. Director & Cinematographer Michael Fimognari is an absolute X-factor, a cheat code of sorts, to bring such style & vibrancy to the film with bright colors, tracking shots, & a tonal consistency that elevates above the streaming holiday label; a subtle smash-up of his camera & production design of the To All The Boys films mixed with a bounce of a more traditional cozy caper.
While the story can be straightforward & often very forgiving to its leads’ capabilities as criminals, Abby McDonald’s script rides all the fine lines created by a holiday titled film with a crime at its center, naturally conducted by two people in a budding romance while living day-to-day in a state of financial difficulty & familial complications. A movie such as this has to have: a mostly believable non-violent crime that solves a problem people struggle with during the holidays, likeable lead characters with enough criminal intelligence to pull off the caper & enough believable chemistry to want them to succeed, AND a smidge of holiday charm that justifies the season and location in which it takes place. Jingle Bell Heist checks all those boxes, servicing fans of each genre, displayed with an added story twist sure to delight modern-day audiences who may have their sights set on morally bankrupt millionaires.
Picture: Netflix
On the performance side, Holt & Swindells sell their personal issues and their slowly forming partnership – in every sense of the term – with a levelheaded sense of realism and a healthy collision of needs turning to wants. They need the money, they need to provide for their loved ones, but they also want to break free from their current stations and live. As the pair learn to trust and even admire each other, Holt & Swindells’ chemistry grows as well; not overselling or outshining the personal, but satisfying in its conclusion.
The script has just enough humor as well, provided in multiple scenes where Sophia and/or Nick get to play dress-up or create new identities; Nick as an angry store patron or tempting man candy at a Gala, or maybe Sophia as a high-class southern belle looking for a safe. Nick’s flatmate Ralph, played by Michael Salami, gets several laugh lines as well; whether his fears of dozens of people all dressed the same, like the time he encountered a convention of Shreks, or his confusion about his cousin being either in MI6 or just owning a tux.
Overall, Jingle Bell Heist is not only the best of the Netflix holiday films so far this year, but also a delightful genre blend that looks and feels better than most streaming films you’ll see. It’s balanced, it’s measured, it’s fun, and it will give you exactly what you’re seeking in a charming heist film. Holt & Swindells don’t oversell the romance to allow the story to blossom, but also have enough “friends turned admirers” energy to bring us home. Director/Cinematographer Michael Fimognari gets tone, look, & flow better than most, whether it’s a desaturated fright from his work with Mike Flanagan or the colorful hues and emotional warmth of a romance-infused genre film. His fingerprints bring McDonald’s “Black List” script to life at the right time of year.
Watch Jingle Bell Heist If You Liked
Out of Sight
To All The Boys Trilogy
All Is Bright
Love at First Sight
MVP of Jingle Bell Heist
Director/Cinematographer Michael Fimognari
When I spoke to Fimognari during the press run for the final To All The Boys film, he said that the trilogy appealed to him because of its “earnestness” in a “heightened universe” setting that reminds us that there is a “chance for us to be good to one another”. So it should come as no surprise that his latest film would also strike a balance between the baseline of doing the right things and leading with compassion while being entertaining within the framework of its genre.
While being a gifted cinematographer and now as a director doing both jobs, Fimognari always lets the story dictate his visual language. Jingle Bell Heist knows when to be winking at the Soderbergh bounciness of a heist film with color, camera movement, & sillier scene transitions and when to stay grounded to the more human elements that get you to the final score. While I know he will be back shooting “Carrie” for Flanagan, I will always look forward to what he brings next as a dynamic director who lets the story take him over.
3.5/5Above Average★★★½☆
Jingle Bell Heist is a cut above your average holiday film to the point it shouldn’t be compared. It’s a cozy caper with just enough reality & humor to make you believe in justice as much as you believe in holiday magic.
