There is a scene in H. Nelson Tracey’s Breakup Season in which the Russell family patriarch, James Urbaniak’s Kirby, is tinkering with a model train in his living room while his son and his would-be daughter-in-law argue upstairs. Beside his wife, Mia (Brook Hogan), Kirby looks like a child witnessing his parents’ particularly ugly divorce in the middle of the holiday season. The roles become reversed as young Ben (The Walking Dead’s Chandler Riggs) and his girlfriend – or should we say ex-girlfriend? – Cassie (Captain Fantastic’s Samantha Isler) are turned into the adults putting a damper on their kids’ perfect Christmas by staging an unexpected dramatic breakup. The so-called kids are, of course, Ben’s parents and siblings, who become entangled in a relationship that they shouldn’t know so much about. This scene is perfect not only in how it subverts the traditional roles played by parents and children, but also in how it encapsulates the conflict at the center of Breakup Season, a movie that is all about taking your favorite holiday rom-coms and turning them on their heads.

Breakup Season is Tracey’s debut feature film, and it shows. The lack of experience, as well as money, is somewhat perceptible in a lot of the film’s most intimate shots, though not so much in its beautiful tableaus of small-town Oregon. However, if this is the first thing Tracey has to show the world, we are excited to see what he will do next. Breakup Season is a charming, heartfelt indie dramedy, one that probably won’t become a holiday staple, but that sure deserves to be watched by anyone that ever had a crappy Christmas. After all, even if Ben and Cassie’s circumstances are too specific to invite total identification, we can all relate to having a special date ruined by unforeseen circumstances, from a nasty breakup to an even worse pandemic. Breakup Season is a comfy watch that does a lot with very little and will surely find its way into your heart, even if its backgrounds are a little too sparse and its lighting a little too saturated.

‘Breakup Season’ Turns the Traditional Holiday Formula Upside-Down
Image via Buffalo 8

The premise is a Hallmark movie gone terribly awry. Living in LA since college, Ben decides to take Cassie to meet his family in Oregon and spend Christmas with them. Unemployed, with only a useless Master’s degree to show for all his years of study, his relationship is the one thing that he has going for him. Thus, he’s more than just a tiny bit excited about introducing the people who raised him to the woman that makes him so happy. However, things don’t go exactly as planned. After a series of misunderstandings, Cassie reveals that she just can’t take it anymore: it’s time to break up. As Ben’s Gen Z baby sister, Liz (Carly Stewart) puts it, Xmas becomes Ex-mas, as the town of La Grande is isolated by the heavy snowfall, leaving Cassie trapped with the Russell family for almost the entire season.

This is the first point in which Breakup Season sets itself apart from lesser movies. Instead of forcing its lead lady into a belligerent dynamic for the laughs, the movie makes her as comfortable as possible. Well, apart from Ben’s constant attempts at getting back together with her, of course. The Russells are basically the best family you could be snowed in with as a not-so-welcome guest. Understanding Cassie’s circumstances, they do everything in their power to make her feel at home, eventually giving her the kind of Christmas she always wanted but never had due to being shuffled around in her parents’ own bad breakup. Though there is humor to be found in Breakup Season, it is not the kind of easy humor that comes from humiliating someone already in a tough spot. Instead, Breakup Season is more concerned with showing that you can feel welcome and embraced even in the direst of circumstances.

In tandem, the movie also focuses on offering us a lot to ponder when it comes to love lost and how it affects us. All members of the Russell family are in different stages of a breakup, so to speak. Liz is still in a relationship that might not have as much of a future as she believes, while big brother Gordon (Jacob Wysocki) is still hung up on the woman who broke his heart. As for Kirby, he’s the one who managed to find love again after years of sorrow, but exactly how long he had to suffer is anyone’s guess. If Breakup Season has a lesson for us, it is that relationships can end even when we least expect it and that it hurts like hell. It is an odd message to deliver on a date such as Christmas, but even odder is how cozy it feels. The movie is bittersweet, sure, but the sweetness is still there.

‘Breakup Season’s Performances Elevate Its Story

Breakup Season’s message is even more deftly delivered by the team of actors selected to play the roles of Cassie and the Russells, virtually the only proper characters in the film. Three of them stand out more than the others. The first is Samantha Isler. From the moment Cassie pops up in Oregon, you can tell that something is going on in her head. When she makes it clear to Ben that their breakup isn’t due to an awkward conversation at dinner, but something that has been brewing inside her for a long time, you just know she is telling the truth. There is an uncertainty to her character at the beginning of the film that makes her actions entirely believable, followed by an air of sadness that forces us to understand that, even though ending things was her choice, she still mourns what was once a fruitful relationship.

Urbaniak, arguably the film’s most prolific and well-known actor, is also a delight as Kirby Russell. He’s the dad we all wish we had. Or maybe we just wish he was the father of one of our exes. Either way, he has a sunny disposition that contrasts with the cold winter weather that surrounds him, bringing warmth into a household that should feel icy and uninviting. Furthermore, he’s the source of a lot of the humor that makes up the film. His reactions to what is happening around him are always commanding the scene, and moments such as the aforementioned train-tinkering are essential to what makes the movie work. In another scene, Kirby is arguing with a hobby shop clerk about his faulty model train, and Urbaniak’s delivery turns what should be just a mundane interaction into comedy gold.

Finally, Wysocki’s Gordon completes the triad that makes Breakup Season work so well. Initially nothing but annoying and off-putting, Gordon is enriched by the narrative and turned into a fully fleshed-out character that soon proves to be essential to Ben’s plot. From a stereotypical neckbeard, he’s turned into a repository of longing and shattered dreams, a threat to a vulnerable younger brother, but also a comfort as he knows precisely what Ben is going through. Wysocki takes his carefully concocted script and brings it to life with a mixture of anger, sorrow, and kindness that not all actors could pull off so easily.

‘Breakup Season’ Fails Some of Its Characters
Image via Buffalo 8

Sadly, it is also when it comes to fleshing out its characters that Breakup Season begins to falter. Brook Hogan’s Mia hardly has anything to do in the film besides inviting Cassie to bake and offering her a shoulder to cry on. Meanwhile, Liz should be given the same treatment as Gordon and allowed to flourish beyond the stereotype of the TikToker with too much knowledge of pop psychology and too little of real social interactions. Sadly, she is not. Stewart does her best with what she is given, but, except for a very brief moment towards the end, we are never allowed to actually see Liz as more than just a cliché. There are moments in which we catch glimpses of the complexities of her relationship with her mother, but, though palpable, they don’t feel like enough.

Finally, there are the aforementioned visual issues, most likely provoked by the budgetary constraints of independent filmmaking. Tracey’s shots are frequently too by the book, with little to look at both in terms of inventiveness and of environmental storytelling. The spaces in Breakup Season are devoid of life, too neat, too sparse, to the point where even a bedroom-cum-storage room feels empty. One shot of Ben talking to his brother at a café is particularly egregious, and brings to mind an institutional video more than a movie. This is, of course, something that Tracey can work on throughout his career – which we hope will be very long and fruitful –, but it still hurts the eye. Thankfully, it is not enough to damage the overall vibe of the film or its amazing performances.

Breakup Season is available to rent on VOD services.

Your changes have been saved Breakup Season H. Nelson Tracey’s debut film is a bittersweet dramedy that charms through great performances.Release Date March 29, 2024 Cast Chandler Riggs , Samantha Isler , James Urbaniak , Carly Stewart , Jacob Wysocki , Hilary Staton Runtime 102 minutes Pros’Breakup Season’ has a relatable script that reflects upon family and loneliness.Performances by Samantha Isler, James Urbaniak, and Jacob Wysocki elevate the script to newer heights. ConsVisually, ‘Breakup Season’ is often extremely uninteresting.Brook Hogan is given little to do with her character.Carly Stewart’s Liz is an underdeveloped character thar rarely feels more than a stereotype.

Your changes have been saved Breakup Season follows a young man who brings his girlfriend to his rural Oregon hometown to meet his family. As events unfold, their visit takes an unexpected turn, leading to unforeseen challenges and tensions within the family dynamic.Release Date March 29, 2024 Cast Chandler Riggs , Samantha Isler , James Urbaniak , Carly Stewart , Jacob Wysocki , Hilary Staton Runtime 102 minutes

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