❌ Looking to kill your New Year's vibe in just 90 minutes? "Letter to Santa" serves up pure cringe – not a movie at all ❌
add_circle Pros
- Natalia Oreiro’s cameo adds a nostalgic spark that fans will appreciate
- The costume and set design capture a playful, festive aesthetic
- A few whimsical visual gags actually land and make you smile
- The soundtrack features upbeat, holiday‑themed tunes that fit the mood
- Runtime stays under 100 minutes, so it doesn’t drag forever
- Subtitles are well‑timed and easy to read for non‑Spanish speakers
- Family‑friendly moments provide a brief warm‑fuzzy feeling
remove_circle Cons
- Jokes feel forced and often cross into uncomfortable cringe territory
- The fantasy logic is shaky, leaving plot holes that confuse more than intrigue
- CGI looks cheap and dated, pulling you out of the story
- Character development is almost nonexistent; you never really care about anyone
- Pacing is uneven – the first half drags while the climax rushes
- Dialogues are clunky, with many lines sounding like bad translations
- The film tries to be both comedy and drama but ends up being neither
- Sound mixing is off‑balance; music drowns out key dialogue in several scenes
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Editor's Summary
I gave "Letter to Santa" a try because I spotted Natalia Oreiro’s name in the credits, and honestly, it felt like getting a tacky holiday card from a stranger. The movie tries to mash comedy with fantasy, but the jokes land about as softly as a sack of coal and the magic looks like it was cobbled together on a shoestring budget. The costumes and a few whimsical set pieces are surprisingly charming, yet the script trips over itself at every turn. By the end you’re left wondering why you spent 90 minutes of your New Year’s vibe on a film that feels more like a cringe‑inducing lesson in what not to do.
Specifications
I saw a few reviews mention Natalia Oreiro in the cast, and that was enough to push me into watching this so‑called ‘masterpiece.’ I barely made it past the first half, and I can’t recall the last time a film made me cringe with that weird, Spanish‑style embarrassment. It’s the kind of movie that shames you, and you end up feeling the heat 🥲
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Letter to Santa Claus (2025, film)
Description
Petro Bezuglov is a button‑down lawyer who’s lost his sense of wonder. His life is a nonstop grind of paperwork and rules. Then his son Vanya digs up Petro’s old letters to Santa and drops them into a magical mailbox. By morning Petro’s world is turned inside out: rivers of soda, toys that come to life, and even Natalia Oreiro, the heroine of his younger days, popping up out of nowhere. To reel in the chaos and protect his family, Petro must launch a crazy hunt for that mailbox and reverse the wishes before it’s too late.
Genre: comedy, fantasyRelease year: 2025Age rating: 12+Runtime: 1.5 hoursCountry: RussiaKinoPoisk rating: 6.3Where to watch: in theaters, KinoPoiskProduction: M. Gorky Film Studio
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Cast
Anton Filipenko, Kristina Asmus, Ivan Okhlobystin, Ekaterina Temnova, Konstantin Karimov, Natalia Oreiro, Miron Provorov, Dima Bilan, Evelina Bledans, Anatoly Tsoy, Azamat Nigmanov, Olga Lapshina, Alexey Rozin, Igor Zhizhikin, Vladimir Sterzhakov, Zoya Berber, Roman Popov, Vladimir Simonov, Ekaterina Shkuro
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Hook and plot
Meet Uncle Petya, who ended up a lawyer because his dad pushed him that way, even though he’d always been into science and tinkering. His kids show up for New Year’s and discover an old, unsent letter Petya wrote to Santa, begging for his childhood wishes to come true and for his dad to be nicer. The kids send it off, and pandemonium breaks loose: toy soldiers spring to life, singer Natalia Oreiro shows up claiming to be Petya’s wife, cola starts flowing instead of water, and the fridge suddenly bursts with candy and lollipops.
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When the kids drop the old letter into the mailbox, the Bezuglov home erupts into full‑blown mayhem. The antique toy soldiers come alive, Natalia Oreiro appears insisting she’s now Petya’s wife, cola streams through the walls in place of water, and the fridge is crammed full of sweets.
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Characters / Cast\u00A0
The film leans on every actor it has. If they’d actually landed top‑tier talent, I’d be annoyed to see them get dragged through this mess. As it is, Kristina Asmus, Anton Filippenko and Ivan Okhlobystin give performances that fit the movie like a glove. Their acting is the only bright spot. Honestly, why bother trying to act when you already know what kind of movie this is)))
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The kid actors do fine – they act like kids, which is exactly what you’d expect. The biggest disappointment, and I mean that in a bad way, is Natalia Oreiro. Her performance is so off‑kilter it feels uncomfortable. Honestly, I wasn’t holding out for any acting brilliance – the film’s bad, the actors are bad.
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Graphics / Cinematography / Locations\u00A0
I have no idea what the budget was, but it looks cheap and all over the place. It seems like all the money went to Milagros – that’s Natalia Oreiro. The graphics are downright awful; I bet a school kid could pull off something better with the same resources. The whole thing feels flat and shoddy, and the visuals do nothing to spark any pre‑holiday vibe or atmosphere.
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Music/Humor/Atmosphere\xa0
The synopsis calls this a comedy. Have you ever seen a comedy so unfunny it makes you wince? Not a single laugh from start to finish. The humor is completely absent in “The Letter.” The bits that are supposed to be jokes land flat, nonsensical, downright dumb.
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And there’s zero festive vibe either. If anything, it feels like a dementor sucking the joy out of the room, leaving you hollow and annoyed. It’s wild that all the Christmas décor—lit trees, garlands, piles of snow, holiday letters—doesn’t lift the mood at all 😤
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General Impressions\xa0
It opens like a cozy family comedy, nothing hints at trouble 🥲 Then bizarre nonsense takes over—stuff you couldn’t dream up with a clear head. I still don’t get how a family film turned into THIS, which feels almost insulting to call it a movie 🥲
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Honestly, I wasn’t into “The Letter” from the get‑go. The cast turned me off immediately, and I’ll admit I didn’t even watch the trailer, so I had no idea who was in it. Turns ... (truncated)