I watched ‘Christmas in the Spotlight’ — the Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce-inspired Lifetime movie — so you don’t have to

By Gabriela Carroll, The Philadelphia Inquirer

Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce have taken the world by storm during their yearlong relationship, spawning Halloween costumes, two songs on Swift’s “The Tortured Poets Department,” a multitude of fan accounts and an entire Jason Kelce expanded universe.

The latest addition to the Tayvis multiverse? Two holiday movies based on their romance, releasing a week apart. The first, “Christmas in the Spotlight,” is a Lifetime Christmas movie loosely inspired by Swift and Kelce’s story. The characters are not explicitly Travis and Taylor, but the movie makes numerous references to the couple, and they clearly resemble Swift and Kelce in both demeanor and appearance. It’s not quite a beat-for-beat representation of what we know of their public relationship, but it’s a close approximation. (The second, “Holiday Touchdown: A Chiefs Love Story,” airs on the Hallmark Channel on Saturday).

Whether you don’t have time to watch it or want to know what to expect before hitting play, here’s what you need to know:

What is the plot of ‘Christmas in the Spotlight?’

Movie Taylor — named Bowyn, and played by Jessica Lord — and Movie Travis — named Drew, and played by Laith Wallschleger — meet backstage at one of Bowyn’s concerts. Drew takes a photo with the pop star, but does not successfully ask her out. He later posts it on social media inviting her to one of his games, a parallel to Travis asking Taylor to come to one of his games on the “New Heights” podcast after attending the Eras Tour.

Bowyn initially agrees to go out with Drew so that her manager (played by Jeannie Mai) can sit in the box and ultimately meet Drew — since she’s a big fan of his team, the Bombers. They start dating privately, but soon go through a brief breakup after one of Drew’s teammates catches the two on a date and they disagree on whether or not to go public.

After watching a pair of news anchors say they hope she never finds true love — ouch — Bowyn agrees to go public and shows up at a game with Drew’s mom, a clear reference to Donna Kelce, who has become a celebrity in her own right. Later, the couple attends a party together, where Bowyn gets recorded sarcastically telling an ex-boyfriend that she’s dating the football player for publicity. That clip gets released out of context, causing the movie’s main crisis — and another breakup.

Ultimately, the real audio of Bowyn’s interaction with her ex-boyfriend is released and she gets back together with Drew just in time for Christmas. And all’s well in the Lifetime universe, as it should be.

Are Jason and Kylie Kelce in it? What about Donna Kelce?

No movie inspired by Travis Kelce would be complete without an in-universe Jason and Kylie, or in this movie, Rob and Nicole. But not everything is the same. Here are some key references to the Kelce family from “Christmas in the Spotlight””

• Unlike in real life, the Jason and Travis characters in the movie play for the same team. And instead of playing center, Rob (Movie Jason, played by Dennis Andres) is the star quarterback of the team, despite being much shorter than his brother.
• In the first scene, the brothers argue over who their mom’s favorite is. “On this planet, I’ve given her a grandchild and you’ve given her an ulcer,” Rob tells Drew. Ahead of the Super Bowl, Donna Kelce actually did say that Jason was currently her favorite “because of the grandchildren” — so Lifetime did its background research!
• Rob also comes off as a bit sexist, judging Bowyn for writing songs about her string of exes, while being at his daughter’s birthday party themed in her honor. Drew, of course, calls him out, and rattles off a list of her many awards and achievements, which seem impossible given the quality of the song she sings at the beginning, but I’m giving them a pass for the music.
• Bowyn’s not the only one with unrealistic accomplishments. Allegedly, Drew has won MVP nine times, which is virtually impossible for any player, especially a receiver. It also feels incongruent with his first scene, which he spends worried about whether or not he’ll be getting cut at the end of the year. He also is very concerned with living up to his brother, which seems ridiculous if he’s already won nine MVP trophies.
• Overall, Rob is not very supportive of Bowyn and Drew’s relationship, judging his brother for letting the relationship and growing fame impact his performance, which Drew denies by saying he’s playing better than ever. Rob is also is noticeably jealous of Drew’s fame at multiple points in the movie, and gets mad when Drew gets an offer to play in L.A. This movie’s version of Jason Kelce is pretty unlikable, to be honest.
• Nicole (Movie Kylie, played by Haley Kalil) is barely in it, and the movie equivalents of the Kelce parents also have minimal roles. Drew does beg Movie Donna for her famous lasagna recipe to cook for Bowyn.

How many Taylor Swift references are there?

In addition to the references to Swift’s love life and Travis Kelce’s real-life family, there are plenty of references to other aspects of the couple’s lives:

• Movie Taylor’s fans are called “Arrowheads.” The in-universe justification for this is that her character’s name is Bowyn (or Bow) and so her fans are arrows — but of course it’s inspired by Arrowhead Stadium, where Travis Kelce’s Chiefs play. This also gives the Travis Kelce character an excuse to do the bow and arrow celebration, which references Swift’s song “The Archer.”
• Bowyn’s manager makes a reference to Rob being in “basically every commercial,” which is definitely also true of real-life Jason.
• The number of references to Swift’s lyrics in this movie is almost uncountable. At one point, Drew’s niece answers a call from Bowyn with a “can’t come to the phone right now, he’s dead!” from “Look What You Made Me Do.” There are references to … “Ready For It?,” “The Alchemy” (which is notably about Travis), “Wonderland,” “Cassandra,” “You Belong With Me,” “I Can Do It With A Broken Heart,” “Mean,” “You’re Losing Me” and probably more that I missed.
• Bowyn and Drew have their first date on her private jet. Swift is famous for her private jet travel, for good and for bad. Bowyn’s jet stays wheels down in the hangar throughout that date.
• Bowyn having an out-of-context conversation released references Swift’s infamous battle with Kanye West over the “Famous” music video. Swift was “canceled” for getting angry at West for including a naked mannequin of hers in the video and using an offensive term toward her after West released footage that suggested he informed her of the video ahead of time. Swift later released a tape with the entire conversation.

Is ‘Christmas in the Spotlight’ any good?

The movie is pretty standard Hallmark-esque Christmas fare. The hook of the movie is the Kelce-Swift connection, but it’s probably a stronger movie without the explicit references constantly reminding you that you’re essentially watching fan-fiction put to screen. It’s clear enough what it’s mimicking just based on the premise and the plot points — do we really need to reference Swift directly in every scene?

The lyrics are often clunkily inserted and there are way too many singing sequences in this movie, which is jarring considering the songs are extremely bad. I was not expecting a Lifetime movie to pull out Taylor Swift-quality lyrics, but the songs could just be cut, honestly.

The actors are fairly charming. And aside from Bowyn looking suspiciously like Brittany Mahomes and the movie inexplicably using stock footage of Yankee Stadium for the establishing shots — were no football stadiums available? — it’s actually pretty enjoyable. That is, when it’s not beating you over the head with all those overt references. Then again, that’s kind of the point.

‘CHRISTMAS IN THE SPOTLIGHT’

Rating: TV-PG

How to watch: Lifetime

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