The Man Who Invented Christmas (2017)

The Man Who Invented Christmas (2017)

The journey that led to Charles Dickens' creation of "A Christmas Carol," a timeless tale that would redefine Christmas. The Man Who Invented Christmas tells of the magical journey that led to the creation of Ebenezer Scrooge (Christopher Plummer), Tiny Tim and other classic characters from A Christmas Carol. Directed by Bharat Nalluri (MISS PETTIGREW LIVES FOR A DAY), the film shows how Charles Dickens (Dan Stevens) mixed real life inspirations with his vivid imagination to conjure up unforgettable characters and a timeless tale, forever changing the holiday season into the celebration we know today.

Rating: PG (for thematic elements and some mild language)

Genre: Comedy, Drama

Directed By: Bharat Nalluri

Written By: Susan Coyne

In Theaters: Nov 22, 2017 Wide

On Disc/Streaming: Mar 6, 2018

Box Office: $5,652,908

Runtime: 104 minutes

Studio: Bleecker Street

Mainly, the fancy at the centre of The Man Who Invented Christmas provides an unusually kinetic literary biography as the writer races against the clock to master the voices of his obstreperous characters in time for the 25th. A surprisingly fresh movie about a story we all know very well. It pushes its hero off his pedestal but delivers him -- like Tom Hulce's Mozart in Amadeus -- to a much better place, the earthy company of fellow citizens who dream of being inspired. It's filled with so many theatrical flourishes and fantastical touches, one can envision this material as a work for the stage, or even an animated film. The film's lighthearted tone imagines the author as a sort of literary Forrest Gump, lucking his way into overhearing brilliant dialogue and accidentally crossing paths with people who inspire his most beloved work. Just like Stevens as Dickens, The Man Who Invented Christmas is immensely likeable, and undoubtedly will having you leaving the theatre feeling more festive than when you entered. There's a somewhat contrived jauntiness to this blending of fact and fiction that may leave cynical audiences annoyed. But for those who leave their bah-humbug attitudes at home, it's a wonderfully entertaining take on a classic. An interesting look at how the classic Charles Dickens story 'A Christmas Carol' came to be. Dan Stevens does a great job as Dickens but it's the magic of how Dickens was inspired and what it ended up producing is what makes it so magical. The Man Who Invented Christmas may as well be one of those holiday Hallmark originals for all of the dopey, saccharine spins it puts on Charles Dickens coming up with "A Christmas Carol" and the overall quality of life in 1843, but luckily director Bharat Nalluri (Miss Pettigrew Lives For a Day) was working from a screenplay by writer/actor Susan Coyne (Mozart in the Jungle) as adapted from Les Standiford's 2008 novel of the same name where distinctive features of those Hallmark originals (or hallmarks of those hallmarks) come to be non-existent. There is no gushing love story at the center of it, no excessive amount of perfectly pressed pants or flannel (or whatever the equivalent was in 19th century London), but rather there is this overriding feeling that came to pass throughout the entirety of the experience that was one of lovable cheese.

The usual suspects of certain clichés and plot points might not all be present, but that feeling of the overwhelming power of pure holiday love and all that it can conquer, is. And while this may just be due to the fact I'm a sucker for the Hallmark channels block of holiday programming to the point I draw every holiday-themed movie back to these standards The Man Who Invented Christmas is so family friendly and earnest in its intent that it's hard to discern between what the movie wants you to feel and what this material should make you feel. As another in a line of "story behind the story" films that have, for one reason or another, decided to catch on some thirteen years after Finding Neverland made it a hot idea to studio execs The Man Who Invented Christmas is perfectly serviceable in delivering all of the broad moments required by an audience that craves what they already know; the name Marley coming from a waiter at a restaurant where Dickens was eating for instance coupled with the tidbit that he "collected names" for his works from his everyday life. Things one could have just as easily assumed without having concrete proof of them, but this is the kind of depth and insight The Man Who Invented Christmas offers: facts that might not have been necessarily well-known, but ones that are rather obvious in that they aren't surprising and offer little to no real drama that would justify this story about Dickens writing his career-defining novel being a story in its own right.

I really loved the movie and the way it portrait the well known story so I would rate the movie a 4/5. #moviereview #blogging