The Man Who Invented Christmas (2017)

Directed by Bharat Nalluri · Drama, History

Starring Dan Stevens, Christopher Plummer, Jonathan Pryce, Miriam Margolyes, Simon Callow, Morfydd Clark, Ger Ryan, Ian McNeice, Bill Paterson, Donald Sumpter, Justin Edwards, Miles Jupp, John Henshaw, Annette Badland, Cosimo Fusco

IHBM7.5Very good

In 1843, Dickens was a literary rock star, but struggling financially after the slow sales of his previous novel, Martin Chuzzlewit. Seized with the vision of a story that would fire the hearts of humanity, Dickens pitched his publishers A Christmas Carol, but they passed. Desperate, Dickens declared he would publish it himself. Slipping into the world of his novel, he spent the next six weeks laughing and arguing with his characters, acting out scenes like a madman on the streets of London for hours on end. With a powerful performance from Dan Stevens, THE MAN WHO INVENTED CHRISTMAS is a film for all ages about the most iconic Christmas story ever written and the genius behind it. The film also stars Christopher Plummer (The Sound of Music) as Ebenezer Scrooge and Jonathan Pryce (Game of Thrones) as John Dickens.

My review · Reviewed 12/21/2018

What struck me over and over again while watching this film is a single question:is there a better movie in here? The good: The acting is phenomenal. I can't believe Christopher Plummer is still acting at his age but he absolutely crushes this role (as he always does). About ten minutes into the film I wondered where this story would go as it seemed rather straight-forward. Halfway through the movie we are introduced to new layers that interweave the current story with the original story. I really found this fascinating and gave the movie a depth that I was not expecting. The bad: Well, nothing really "bad". The worst I can say about the film is the question that I posed at the beginning of the review. The film was satisfying but I felt given the layers and acting it could have been fantastic. That said, I couldn't quite figure out what it could have been. Should it be more of a comedy or more of a dark drama? If it was the former we've seen that before inScrooged. If it was the latter it might too much resemble the actual story. Maybe I would have the "characters" be more involved in a kind of neurotic way? I don't know.

christmas