That Christmas
Christmas, actually
Hapless season: Sam and Danny
Image courtesy of Netflix.
In recent years, a screening of Richard Curtis’s Love Actually has become as much of a Christmas staple in the UK as turkey, frozen carolers and awful cracker jokes. It stands to reason, then, that it crops up in the Netflix cartoon That Christmas not once, but twice, branded “the lovely old Christmas film,” as if it were as essential to a child’s festive requirements as the undercooked Brussels sprouts. But this Christmas is going to be different, although there is a whiff of Love Actually throughout, being an adaptation of Curtis’s literary trilogy That Christmas and Other Stories, scripted by Peter Souter and Curtis himself. Like Love Actually, the film focuses on a series of different characters going through various emotional journeys, united by the season to be jolly, fa-la-la-la-la.
Set in the coastal Suffolk town of Wellington-on-Sea, we are introduced to the Cain and Abel of young siblings, the imaginative, brainy, sweet but insecure Sam (Zazie Hayhurst) and her sister, the disruptive, cheeky and adventurous Charlie (Sienna Sayer). There’s also the can-do Bernadette McNutt (India Brown), who’s willing to shake up the status quo in the name of fun, kicking off the school play with words to chill the marrow of every parent watching. “Jesus!” she barks at the assembled company “… was a cool dude: beard, long hair, into woodwork – a hipster, basically. He wouldn’t have wanted us to do the same boring Christmas story year after year – right, parents? Exactly. He’d want a strictly vegetarian, multi-cultured fun fest with lots of pop songs and stuff about climate change, written by our resident genius.” Pure Richard Curtis. Even the film’s title sounds like a Wham! seasonal standard.
So, Bernadette has thrown down the gauntlet and the film follows her template, discarding tradition at every toss of a snowball as it blends elements of Home Alone with Arthur Christmas. As the true spirit of the festival is explored and stereotypes are overturned, it’s hard not to be touched by some of the narrative developments, not because they aren’t manipulative but because the victims are children… and the lonely. There is some exceptional voice work, constantly underplaying some excellent dialogue, particularly Sindhu Vee as the infinitely sarcastic Mrs Mulji (“Happy Hyperthermia,” she says drolly at one point). But the younger cast members are not denied their moment in the snow, either, as Sam criticises her elders for what she calls their “negative pigeon-holing extravaganza.” As the merciless schoolmarm Miss Trapper, Fiona Shaw is spot-on, a solitary old goat who is far too busy to acknowledge her own loneliness, while keeping a watchful eye on the young, shy Danny (Jack Wisniewski), whose single mother (Jodie Whittaker) is always away at the behest of the NHS. Of course, the film has its heart in the right pace while also bucking tradition and questioning the relevance of Christmas in 2024.
JAMES CAMERON-WILSON
Voices of Brian Cox, Fiona Shaw, Jodie Whittaker, Lolly Adefope, Alex Macqueen, Katherine Parkinson, Bill Nighy, Rhys Darby, Sindhu Vee, India Brown, Zazie Hayhurst, Sienna Sayer, Jack Wisniewski, Rosie Cavaliero, Paul Kaye, Guz Khan, Andy Nyman, Deborah Findlay, Jordan North, Dermot O'Leary, Simon Otto.
Dir Simon Otto, Pro Nicole P. Hearon and Adam Tandy, Screenplay Richard Curtis and Peter Souter, from That Christmas and Other Stories by Richard Curtis, Pro Des Justin Hutchinson-Chatburn, Ed Sim Evan-Jones, Music John Powell, Sound Glen Gathard.
Netflix Animation/Locksmith Animation/DNEG Animation-Netflix.
92 mins. UK/USA. 2024. UK and US Rel: 4 December 2024. Cert. PG.
