During Jingle Bell Heist, an argument takes place between a couple background characters as to whether Die Hard (1988) is a Christmas movie.  It may be an unpopular opinion, but it is my contention that the iconic Bruce Willis flick is not holiday fare.  At the same time, like many of its seasonally appropriate cinematic cousins, it is a normal story with a Yule time wrapping.  This is as true for romantic comedies like A Christmas in Tennessee (2018) as it is for Die Hard.  What separates the two is that the former has what Hollywood calls “Christmas spirit” that brings couples together.  With the latter, I have my doubts that John McClane (Bruce Willis) is tapping into anything having to do with the holiday in order to stop Hans Gruber (Alan Rickman).  One gets the same vibe with Jingle Bell Heist.  It may have a carol in the title and lots of decorated trees, but a connection to the birth of Christ is conspicuously lacking.

You might think an American working in London is conspicuous, but Sophie Arbus (Olivia Holt), before she helps with the Jingle Bell Heist, is a humble employee at Sterling’s department store.  “Humble” describes only her lowly position.  As she walks into work, we see her pickpocket a miserly shopkeeper who chases away a pair of buskers, giving the musicians the windfall.  While at her legitimate employment, she pinches a bejeweled dog collar from a rude customer.  It is an excuse to enter the lost and found where she pockets some loose money from turned-in purses.  While there, she also notices a number of diamond encrusted necklaces behind a locked gate.  Watching these movements via a hacked surveillance feed is Nick O’Connor (Connor Swindells).  It is later revealed that the former security expert had been accused of stealing by Maxwell Sterling (Peter Serafinowicz), Sterling’s proprietor, after installing his store’s cameras and other loss prevention systems.  Thus, Connor is looking for a way of getting back at Maxwell.  With a petty thief and someone out for revenge, you might think none of these characters worthy of any sympathy.  You could point out that at least Sophie contributed some of her stolen funds to a good cause, but this Catholic will tell you that bad and good deeds are not mutually exclusive.  Thankfully, the film does not end at this point.  Instead, we see Sophie visit her mother, Rita (Natasha Joseph), who is sick in the hospital with cancer.  They have come to Rita’s native England to receive more affordable healthcare (ahem), leaving the talented Sophie, who had been taught sleight-of-hand by her magician grandfather in the United States.  Those skills are what draws Connor to her, who appears at Sterling’s and shows her the video of her theft.  Having arranged a meeting place, he tells her that she either helps him or he gives the evidence to the authorities.  She ignores the threat, but nicks his wallet while pushing past him.  This proves handy when she is subsequently told by the doctors that her mother is going to need a procedure that state subsidized medicine does not cover.  Having Connor’s information, Sophie goes to his flat at the moment he is being visited by his daughter, Maddie (Alara-Star Khan), and her mother, Samantha Warren (Brooke Henzell).  Bethany and Connor are separated, and she is threatening to move her and Maddie far away unless he is able to find more stable housing.  Hence, Connor’s motivation for the heist is not purely revenge, nor is Sophie’s just about greed.  Their first idea is to take the jewels seen at the beginning.  Yet, when she makes another trip into the basement, she sees that they are missing.  In the next moment, the police are on scene and Eddie Morris (Ed Kear), the beloved security guard, is being taken away in handcuffs.  Though Connor and Sophie are tempted to give up, they are given new inspiration when she overhears one of her co-workers talking about £500,000 Maxwell keeps in his office safe.  Sophie is confident that she can crack it, but Connor’s abilities are not up to the task of hacking the system.  He is not quite the expert he seems, which is when he admits how he had been swindled by Maxwell.  What Connor and Sophie now need is a device kept by Maxwell to get past the number pad that leads to the safe.  To obtain it, Connor tries to seduce Cynthia Sterling (Lucy Punch), Maxwell’s wife, which he hopes will lead to an invitation to her place.  Once there, Sophie comes to lend her assistance, but Cynthia has already recognized Connor.  Instead of turning in the con artists, Cynthia offers to help them but in return for something bigger.  This is a big reveal in the closing minutes, but if you guessed that Maxwell had been behind the disappearance of the jewelry, then it should not come as a surprise that Connor and Sophie’s activities had been designed to frame Maxwell.  In doing so, control of the company comes to Cynthia, and she makes sure Connor and Sophie are well rewarded.  At the same time, this is not the biggest twist.  The safe requires a deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) sample in order to be opened.  Sophie is able to provide the needed material because she is Maxwell’s daughter, who had spurned his offspring when she was a child.  The adult Sophie watches outside Sterling’s as Maxwell is put into the back of a squad car, with him noticing her and realization dawning on his face.  We end with Connor and Maddie visiting Rita and Sophie for a holiday meal.

The reason for the visit at the end of Jingle Bell Heist is because, of course, Connor and Sophie have fallen in love while carrying out their plot.  Nonetheless, as my synopsis suggests, the film is less about romance than the supposed “heist,” even though nothing is ultimately stolen.  What it also is not is a Christmas movie.  Sure, Sterling’s is decked in holiday decorations, and there is a place where kids can come to get a picture with Santa Claus.  However, at no point are any of the activities of our two main characters referenced as being done because of the time of the year.  It could have as easily taken place on Guy Fawkes Day as at the point in the calendar meant to be celebrating the coming of the Messiah.  By the way, I did not bring up the Fifth of November solely because it was the first specifically English holiday I could think of outside of December 25^th.  The Gunpowder Treason and Plot, with which Fawkes has become synonymous, was a briefly lived Catholic rebellion against their oppression in England.  Like Connor and Sophie, Fawkes and his co-conspirators used unlawful means in order to redress their problems.  There is a fine line for Catholics to walk when it comes to injustice.  On the one hand, we are called to be peaceful and turn the other cheek.  Scripture also reminds us to obey laws.  Alternatively, there are the immortal words of St. Augustine of Hippo who coined the phrase that an unjust law is no law.  This phrase has echoed through the centuries, being quoted by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., for example, as part of his basis for his non-violent protests.  While I cannot see a scenario in which Faith would justify theft as in the film, what all these actions underscore is that there is more than one way to respond to tyranny.

Obviously, talking about tyranny in relation to Jingle Bell Heist is a little silly.  So is thinking that this is a Christmas movie.  All the same, it is not a bad film on its own.  This is especially true if you are looking for something a little different from what we usually get this time of year.