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.”
The fact that Danny has been embarrassed further, by being cast as a chickpea in Bernadette’s play, doesn’t help matters ... particularly since he looks more like an oversized potato.
Worse yet, Danny receives undo attention from stern class teacher Ms. Trapper (Fiona Shaw), who’s determined not to let the boy fall behind in his studies.
Additional key players include Bernadette’s adorable baby sister, Eve (Bronte Smith); their parents, Mr. and Mrs. McNutt (Rhys Darby and Lolly Adefope); the hilariously pessimistic Mrs. Mulji (Sindhu Vee), and her daughter Nisha (Kuhu Agawal); condescending, stuffed-shirt Mr. and Mrs. Forrest (Alex Macqueen and Katherine Parkinson), and their children Scarlett and Teddy (Ava Talbot and Freddie Spry); nasty Farmer Yirrell (Paul Kaye), who owns the local turkey farm; and cantankerous Lighthouse Bill (Bill Nighy), who mans the town’s essential structure.
And Santa, of course, who’s accompanied by lone reindeer Dasher (Guz Khan), because the rest of the herd was sidelined by Red Nose Flu. Dasher’s barbed running commentary, as this film reaches its second half, is hilarious.
In addition to Danny’s “hopeless” attraction to Sam, the boy also looks forward to his father’s promised visit on Christmas Day. Additional angst revolves around Ms. Trapper, who lives alone and cannot bear to look through a particular photo album; and Sam’s fear that her sister seems destined for Santa’s “naughty” list.
As the Jolly Red Elf comments at one point, via off-camera narration, “Christmas is an emotional magnifying glass,” which heightens things good and bad.
Meanwhile, five of the parents — Danny’s mother must work, of course — head off to enjoy their own merry-making on the mainland, via Mr. Forrest’s notoriously unreliable van (which he has dubbed Beyoncé II).
“Eight hours without adults!” their children cry in delight, left under Bernadette’s care in their family’s huge barn. “Eight hours without children!” the adults cheer, in the very next shot.
Shortly thereafter, the blizzard hits ... and everything goes topsy-turvy.
In the barn, the imaginative Bernadette makes the most of the situation. She’s fed up with “the usual” holiday trappings: the same boring Christmas dinner — and wouldn’t the turkeys appreciate a break? — the same boring old Christmas movie (cue a brief, cheekily placed film clip), and the same boring Christmas morning walk to the beachside bungalows.
The aforementioned turkeys become a droll running gag — which reminded me of 1982’s endearing TV short, Ziggy’s Gift — particularly when a hungry fox gets involved.
Santa’s participation also proves eventful, notably with respect to Danny’s rather unusual gift request.
The underlying message, for all of the above, is that Christmas isn’t solely about tradition; it’s what we make of it.
That Christmas is the second feature from North London’s Locksmith Animation, following 2021’s equally delightful Ron’s Gone Wrong. The animation style here is colorful, “rounded,” wide-eyed and friendly, with severe touches limited to — as one example — Ms. Trapper’s hawk-like nose. The snowfall looks impressively authentic, and backgrounds are laden with detail: particularly in the twins’ bedroom and Forrests’ huge barn.
The village itself is chocolate-box picturesque; I’d love to live there.
John Powell’s effervescent score occasionally yields to cleverly placed songs such as Rhian Sheehan’s “Thin Ice” and Kelly Clarkson’s “Underneath the Tree.”
You really can’t ask for more in a Christmas movie, and this one is guaranteed to leave a smile — and a warm feeling — in every viewer’s heart.
Oh, and be sure to hang around through the first chunk of end credits; you don’t want to miss the final cut-scene.
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