That Christmas – Review

Cert – PG, Run-time – 1 hour 32 minutes, Director – Simon Otto

After a major snowstorm the small town of Wellington-On-Sea sees its residents separated over Christmas, however while Santa (Brian Cox) also struggles with the weather he may be the one to help.

Richard Curtis loves a multi-story Christmas flick which loosely brings its characters together in various ways. Adapted from his children’s book series, with a screenplay co-written by Curtis and Peter Souter, That Christmas feels like four short films have been stuck together with the loose connection of all being set in the fictional town of Wellington-On-Sea. After a major snowstorm, which only happens overnight and means that people can’t drive but they still seem to be able to get out of their houses perfectly fine, the various residents of the town find themselves separated from each other in various ways over the holiday.

Whether it be new-in-town Danny (Jack Wisniewski) and his recently-divorced nurse mum (Jodie Whittaker), who gets called away due to be being the closest person on call who can walk to care for someone, or teenage Bernadette (India Brown), leading a revolution of creating new ways to embrace tired family traditions with the group of kids she’s left to look after when he parents (Rhys Darby, Lolly Adefope) are stranded with friends on an overturned van on a frozen lake, the extent to which people embrace this separation is large. The storm even causes issues for Santa (Brian Cox – offering a very infrequent narration for the film) as he and his one reindeer (Guz Khan) struggle to get through the weather, but could be the only ones to help the folk of Wellington-On-Sea at this time.

Even at just 92-minutes, including credits, the film feels somewhat stretched when it comes to its various ideas. Certainly, we’ve seen a handful of them before, and here there’s not entirely a festive comfort to that familiarity, but there are one or two light chuckles to help things along. Things might start of tentatively, but once the introductory school nativity begins there are a few laughs to be found to ease into the moment and gradually alleviate the cringe-inducing nature which things initially kick off with. There are still some moments which you can’t help but wince at here and there, particularly in regards to a number of crowbarred gags and references to inclusivity, largely from Bernadette, who stages the nativity, changing the shepherds to organic farmers – although getting a chuckle as they carry with them broccoli, sweetcorn, aubergines and a chickpea – and some young characters’ apparent addiction to their phones and social media.

There are some nice moments between Danny and his mum, who leaves constant reminders and messages to him on post-it notes covering the walls and furniture of their home, and twin Sam (Zazie Hayhurst) makes for a likable character, worrying that her sister, Charlie (Sienna Sayer) is going to be put on the naughty list. How well the intended emotional beats come through might be a bit different as most seem to be lost amongst the lighter, more comedic edges which while trying to embrace a family audience largely skew towards younger viewers in tone and style – the animation is a very safe, Disney-lite style, and a tone and humour which borders often on Aardman-lite. Even a moment dwelling on the idea of Christmas being a time to “celebrate the wins, and live with the losses” is extremely brief as it feels in a rush to make its point that it gets little time to linger and have a proper effect, as if the film simply doesn’t want to dwell on it.

The conflict of a stretched-out rush is present throughout much of the short run-time, particularly in the tonal shifts. But, as a whole, there are enough chuckles and nice moments between characters – one conversation about Wine Gums between Danny and Sam outside her family shop is a warm highlight – to see it through and make for occasionally amusing, and not too difficult, viewing. This may not turn out to be a future Christmas classic like other Richard Curtis linked projects – Love Actually is cited in a scene which implies that parents make their children watch it each year, presumably in an edited version which doesn’t feature strands involving Kris Marshall, Martin Freeman, Joanna Page and some of Alan Rickman and Bill Nighy – but for what it is, for this Christmas, That Christmas turns out to do enough, even if it could push itself more, to amuse for 90-minutes this festive season.

It might not be the most original film, and its tonal shifts can sometimes feel rushed, but there’s enough chuckles within That Christmas’ playful narrative/s to help it along and make for amusing family viewing for another year.