Dolly Parton's Christmas on the Square

It's hard to figure out quite where Christmas on the Square is headed in any given moment, despite the film borrowing liberally from festive classics.

"Campy" is camp with a diploma and a martini. And "Christmas on the Square" is a drunk.

This is Netflix's version of community theater, which I don't really mind!

The national treasure Parton lends her songs and her luminescence to the feel-good family movie.

Christmas on the Square lets the viewer kick back and indulge in all things Parton.

This is a song-and-dance version of the holiday transformation story. It's just not a particularly good one.

With new original music from Dolly herself and more than enough snappy dance numbers, Christmas On the Square won’t be winning any awards but it will surely become a holiday favorite in its own right.

It's a perfect fusion of Dolly's aesthetics with the vibe of Tyler Perry's stage productions - even if, as a friend on the internet said, "You're going to want to wallow in sin afterward, it's so sweet."

A complex film this is not, but rather a film about faith, more specifically, Christianity, the driving force for so much of Dolly Parton's own charitable work.

Holiday musical includes mature themes, promotes faith.