That Christmas

• Directed by Simon Otto
• October 19, 2024 (BFI London Film Festival) / December 4, 2024 (Netflix)
• Based on That Christmas and Other Stories by Richard Curtis

Voice Cast

• Santa Claus-Brian Cox
• Miss Trapper-Fiona Shaw
• Mrs. Williams-Jodie Whittaker
• Lighthouse Bill-Bill Nighy
• Mrs. McNutt-Lolly Adefope
• Mr. Forrest-Alex Macqueen
• Mrs. Forrest-Katherine Parkinson
• Mrs. Mulji-Sindhu Vee
• Bernadette “Bernie” McNutt-India Brown
• Sam Beccles-Zazie Hayhurst
• Charlie Beccles-Sienna Sayer
• Danny Williams-Jack Wisniewski
• Mrs. Beccles-Rosie Cavaliero
• Yirrell-Paul Kaye
• Dasher-Guz Khan
• Mr. Beccles-Andy Nyman
• Nisha Mulji-Kuhu Agarwal
• Eve McNutt-Bronte Smith
• Teddy Forrest-Freddie Spry
• Scarlett Forrest-Ava Talbot
• Mr. McNutt-Rhys Darby
• Mrs. Horton-Deborah Findlay
• Mr. Hack-Jordan North
• Mr. Chop-Dermot O’Leary

When a snowstorm hits the village of Wellington-on-Sea, it changes everyone’s plans-including Santa’s.

My hopes for That Christmas were dashed pretty early. The movie opens with a social justice/climate justice Christmas pageant. The story of The Nativity is made into a narrative about climate change and even choice. We even had a snippet of Papa Don’t Preach by Madonna in the pageant! Then there is replacing the Three Wise Men with the Three Wise Women! Are they trying to be funny or just offend people right off the bat?

There’s Danny Williams whose mother is mildly interested in his life. To keep that Christmas spirit they reveal dad ran off with a 25 year old dental assistant with the situation being used for jokes! How is that Christmas humor? It gets so much worse from there with the disconnected parent theme attached to all the parental figures who would rather be around anyone other than their own kids.

We have kids make decisions framed as good things such as the girl who releases a local farmer’s turkeys regardless of the consequences. Admittedly he jacked up the price but these live domesticated turkeys will not make it in the wild. Characters are superficial with one characteristic often defining their entire portrayal here. That’s not a personality. It’s a personality quirk. Richard Harris made a wonderful film with Love Actually but his writing here is nowhere near on par with that. He’s much better than this.

That Christmas manages some Christmas oriented drama and feelings and then segues into grating superficial modern tropes in an effort to be hip and edgy. Maybe focus on Danny and his mother’s issues rather than the distant adults who are more concerned with getting to their destinations than caring for their children. Maybe stop dropping in so many social and environmental justice mentions and focus on people and the season.

We have a teacher named Miss Trapper whose personal baggage has put a damper on her holiday mood and even affected her teaching. She mourns for her deceased love Jamie. Two stories with tragic elements that could be something meaningful. While it wouldn’t have been a groundbreaking bit of animated cinema it certainly would’ve gotten more to the season rather than the social justice messages that they often pushed. And it would’ve been more emotionally satisfying.

The tone is inconsistent. As you can surmise it swings from a social justice/environmental justice lecture to heartwarming or just emotional to moments of silliness mostly centered around an old VW bus that the owner calls Beyoncé. Why? I don’t know. It’s just, well, dumb. It also has a habit of tossing in unearned elements such as Lighthouse Bill getting one last Christmas with his mother. He popped up from time to time in the movie but had no story that even showed us he had not seen his mother or that she was still alive.

Santa is excess. He is supposedly friends with Lighthouse Bill but other than the light there is no connection. I do not recall any scenes containing the two. He just provides narration to avoid using costly animation to show what happens.

The animation and the character designs all look good. Excellent stuff. The background music is fine and helps highlight the seasonal mood though I’m not necessarily sold on some of the other music that plays during the course of the movie.

That Christmas has so much that could’ve made it something special but instead can’t decide on a tone or a focus. I ultimately felt bored. Skip.