Christmas movies have become an explosive growth industry, usually with lamentable results; most have the cookie-cutter plot of a Harlequin romance novel, and the lingering impact of a snowflake on a slushy afternoon.
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| The extremely anxious Sam, foreground right, worried that she'll blow her lines in this rather unusual school Christmas play, fails to notice that Danny — helplessly trapped in a chickpea costume — worships the ground on which she walks. |
Trust our British cousins to strike gold again.
Director Simon Otto’s animated charmer is adapted from three best-selling children’s books by author Richard Curtis and illustrator Rebecca Cobb: That Christmas, The Empty Stocking and Snow Day. Curtis also is well known as the writer and/or director of Four Weddings and a Funeral, Love Actually and Pirate Radio, among others.
He collaborated on this film adaptation with co-scripter Peter Souter, and the result is totally delightful ... and slyly subversive. Curtis also brought along several of his actor buddies, to voice these characters: icing on the cake.
As is typical of Curtis stores, numerous character arcs intertwine and revolve around loneliness, dashed expectations, unrequited love and rebels with a cause.
The setting is the picturesque seaside village of Wellington-on-Sea, which — as related by Santa Claus (Brian Cox), looking back on past events — recently endured what is remembered as that Christmas, when a huge blizzard challenged the close-knit families and their children.
(Curtis based this community on a portion of East England’s Suffolk, where he lives.)
But all initially is boisterous and fun, a few days before that ill-fated holiday, thanks to energetic and progressively minded young Bernadette (India Brown), director of the annual school Christmas play. She’s determined to abandon stodgy Biblical tradition and shake things up with some gender equality and earth-friendly touches, in an original script called Three Wise Women.
Her cast includes identical twin girls Charlie (Sienna Sayer) and Sam (Zazie Hayhurst); the former is a bold, mischievous prankster who never cleans her half of their shared bedroom, the latter a forever worried over-thinker who is the “good girl” yin to her twin’s “bad” yang.
Introverted newcomer Danny Williams (Jack Wisniewski) lives with his recently divorced single mother (Jodie Whittaker); he’s frequently left alone, because she accepts double work shifts in order to make ends meet. They “communicate” via her endless stream of Post-it notes (a cute touch, with a great third-act payoff).
Danny also is deeply in love with Sam, but can’t work up the courage to even talk to her.
“I’m shy, and she’s anxious,” he laments, early on. “It’s hopeless.”
