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 in Scrooged. 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.

see my christmas movie reviews at https://ihatebadmovies.com/?s=christmas