"Marley was dead, to begin with, there is no doubt whatever about that." In December of 1843, struggling author Charles Dickens began his yuletide classic A Christmas Carol with this line. Known for his humor as much as his thought-provoking genius, Dickens spent the next paragraph comparing Marley's death to that of a door nail, then questioning whether that was an appropriate object and perhaps a coffin nail would have been more accurate. After three failed novels, Dickens struck gold with this timeless tale that has become as synonymous with Christmas as trees, lights, wise men, snowmen and Santa. The much-needed success of A Christmas Carol resurrected Dickens' career, not unlike the rebirth of Ebeneezer Scrooge after his night of ghostly visitors on Christmas Eve. The Man Who Invented Christmas tells the story of Dickens' inspiration for his holiday masterpiece.
After the huge success of Oliver Twist, Dickens has put out three failed novels in the last 16 months. He is broke. He and his wife have just moved into a larger house with their three children, housekeeper and nanny. The bills are piling up and his wife just informed him they have another child on the way. In two months, he must write and publish the book of his career, a Christmas story, to save his family. But Dickens has severe writer's block and matters are not made any better with his estranged parents moving in, drudging up painful memories of a less-than-pleasant childhood, the result of his father's financial irresponsibility.
Charles overhears his nanny Tara telling a traditional Irish Christmas tale to the rest of the children. It involves spirits that roam free on Christmas eve every year. That plants the first little seed of a story. After an event where Charles gave a speech, a rich attendee expressed some criticisms of his latest works. His objection was that the poor and the beggars and the pickpockets don't deserve a place in a novel, they should be in the workhouses. Charles rebuts that many would rather die. The response was that they had better get on with it and decrease the surplus population. The seed grew in his head.
That evening, he stumbles upon a graveyard where a man is burying his business partner. There are no friends, no family present and the man isn't upset by the loss. Two men with shovels are waiting nearby to toss in the dirt and Dickens overhears them comment that it's a shame the business partner had so much money and no one to share it with. As the man walks away from the grave, he spies Dickens looking on. He approaches Charles, stops, and utters just one word: "Humbug." And the seed took life. The story began to come and the characters came alive in his mind.
The Man Who Invented Christmas looked from the previews like it could potentially be a new underground Christmas classic. A Christmas Carol has been made and re-imagined several times. George C. Scott played Bob Cratchit in 1984. In 1988, Bill Murray played Xavier Cross in a twist on the classed of Scrooged. In 1992, the role was undertaken by Kermit the Frog in The Muppet Christmas Carol. 2009 marked a fantastic animation put out by Disney with Jim Carrey in the lead role. I, myself, played the narrator in a radio production of A Christmas Carol in High School in the early 1990's. I said this could be an underground classic because I thought it might take a couple years to really take hold and be shown every year on TV during the holidays. After watching it though, I don't think this will become a Christmas classic at all as this movie fell far short of my expectations.
I thought that Dan Stevens delivered a humorous, genuine, heart-felt and energetic performance as Charles Dickens and Christopher Plummer was a brilliant Scrooge. The Man Who Invented Christmas is a Christmas story that has never been told before, though it is based on the story that has been told nearly as many times as the birth of Jesus in the manger. I'm a huge fan of all things Christmas but this was a disappointment. Dickens was a master storyteller using words to paint vivid images and creating characters who come to life off his pages. Unfortunately, and ironically, those are the two things that screen writer Susan Coyne lacked. Like Stevens and Nalluri, the majority of Coyne's previous work is from television. The Man Who Invented Christmas might have been too big for her to take on. Even within the film, we see how powerful a writer Dickens was. He shares some of his pages with Tara and she smiles uncontrollably and is also brought to tears as she can't bear the thought of Bob Cratchit losing Tiny Tim and believes there must be some good within Scrooge. Later in the film, Dickens is struggling with the ending of the story and the turning point for Scrooge. His best friend and business partner Mr. Chapman asks him some probing questions. What causes Scrooge to turn around? What's holding him back? Why is he the way he is? Who cares for him? Who does he care for? All questions that make a character relatable, three dimensional, and real. It doesn't seem these questions were asked of most of the characters in the movie about the man who did it better than almost anyone else throughout history.
Dickens was a successful author who chose to move into a larger house with all the bells and whistles. You felt worse about the chandelier than you did about his wife and three children. Dickens wrestled with his own Scrooge-like characteristics, but you weren't exactly rooting for him like you were for Scrooge towards the end of the book. You didn't feel sorry for his wife who felt neglected nor for Tara who was sent away after a temper tantrum. There was so much potential for this to be a great movie, but the lack of basics made it fail.
I gave The Man Who Invented Christmas a 4 Star Prediction. I'm going to lower that to 2.5 Stars. I'd probably watch it again if it was on TV. I doubt I'd rent it, and I'm sure I won't be adding this one to my collection.
After the huge success of Oliver Twist, Dickens has put out three failed novels in the last 16 months. He is broke. He and his wife have just moved into a larger house with their three children, housekeeper and nanny. The bills are piling up and his wife just informed him they have another child on the way. In two months, he must write and publish the book of his career, a Christmas story, to save his family. But Dickens has severe writer's block and matters are not made any better with his estranged parents moving in, drudging up painful memories of a less-than-pleasant childhood, the result of his father's financial irresponsibility.
Charles overhears his nanny Tara telling a traditional Irish Christmas tale to the rest of the children. It involves spirits that roam free on Christmas eve every year. That plants the first little seed of a story. After an event where Charles gave a speech, a rich attendee expressed some criticisms of his latest works. His objection was that the poor and the beggars and the pickpockets don't deserve a place in a novel, they should be in the workhouses. Charles rebuts that many would rather die. The response was that they had better get on with it and decrease the surplus population. The seed grew in his head.
That evening, he stumbles upon a graveyard where a man is burying his business partner. There are no friends, no family present and the man isn't upset by the loss. Two men with shovels are waiting nearby to toss in the dirt and Dickens overhears them comment that it's a shame the business partner had so much money and no one to share it with. As the man walks away from the grave, he spies Dickens looking on. He approaches Charles, stops, and utters just one word: "Humbug." And the seed took life. The story began to come and the characters came alive in his mind.
The Man Who Invented Christmas looked from the previews like it could potentially be a new underground Christmas classic. A Christmas Carol has been made and re-imagined several times. George C. Scott played Bob Cratchit in 1984. In 1988, Bill Murray played Xavier Cross in a twist on the classed of Scrooged. In 1992, the role was undertaken by Kermit the Frog in The Muppet Christmas Carol. 2009 marked a fantastic animation put out by Disney with Jim Carrey in the lead role. I, myself, played the narrator in a radio production of A Christmas Carol in High School in the early 1990's. I said this could be an underground classic because I thought it might take a couple years to really take hold and be shown every year on TV during the holidays. After watching it though, I don't think this will become a Christmas classic at all as this movie fell far short of my expectations.
I thought that Dan Stevens delivered a humorous, genuine, heart-felt and energetic performance as Charles Dickens and Christopher Plummer was a brilliant Scrooge. The Man Who Invented Christmas is a Christmas story that has never been told before, though it is based on the story that has been told nearly as many times as the birth of Jesus in the manger. I'm a huge fan of all things Christmas but this was a disappointment. Dickens was a master storyteller using words to paint vivid images and creating characters who come to life off his pages. Unfortunately, and ironically, those are the two things that screen writer Susan Coyne lacked. Like Stevens and Nalluri, the majority of Coyne's previous work is from television. The Man Who Invented Christmas might have been too big for her to take on. Even within the film, we see how powerful a writer Dickens was. He shares some of his pages with Tara and she smiles uncontrollably and is also brought to tears as she can't bear the thought of Bob Cratchit losing Tiny Tim and believes there must be some good within Scrooge. Later in the film, Dickens is struggling with the ending of the story and the turning point for Scrooge. His best friend and business partner Mr. Chapman asks him some probing questions. What causes Scrooge to turn around? What's holding him back? Why is he the way he is? Who cares for him? Who does he care for? All questions that make a character relatable, three dimensional, and real. It doesn't seem these questions were asked of most of the characters in the movie about the man who did it better than almost anyone else throughout history.
Dickens was a successful author who chose to move into a larger house with all the bells and whistles. You felt worse about the chandelier than you did about his wife and three children. Dickens wrestled with his own Scrooge-like characteristics, but you weren't exactly rooting for him like you were for Scrooge towards the end of the book. You didn't feel sorry for his wife who felt neglected nor for Tara who was sent away after a temper tantrum. There was so much potential for this to be a great movie, but the lack of basics made it fail.
I gave The Man Who Invented Christmas a 4 Star Prediction. I'm going to lower that to 2.5 Stars. I'd probably watch it again if it was on TV. I doubt I'd rent it, and I'm sure I won't be adding this one to my collection.