The Man Who Invented Christmas

The Man Who Invented Christmas is not a biofilm about Charles Dickens, as it is being advertised.  It's much more gimmicky than that.  It wants us to believe that Dickens got the idea for A Christmas Carol (and all of his stories, apparently) by having imaginary conversations with his characters, who frequently pop out of nowhere to talk or argue with him when no one is around.  I suppose it's a cute concept that might have worked, but the way it plays out here, the imaginary fictional characters hijack the movie to the point that we learn nothing about Dickens, the people in his life, or even much of the writing process, which is what the movie really wants to be about.

As the film opens, it's 1843, and Dickens (Dan Stevens) is in a writing slump after his last three books have flopped.  The money from the success of Oliver Twist is starting to run out, and with four kids, his wife Catherine (Morfydd Clark) pregnant with a fifth, and an expensive home renovation going on, he needs a hit.  He finds inspiration from a young Irish maid (Anna Murphy) who works in his house, and tells his children folk tales from her country about how ghosts enter the land of the living around Christmas.  This is enough to inspire Dickens to write again, and he begins laying out the groundwork for the story.  The only problem?  Christmas is only six weeks away, and if he wants to release the book on time, not only will he have to work fast, but he will have to hire people himself who can illustrate and publish his story by the deadline.

Dickens faces a lot of obstacles while he tries to work, especially his crowded house of family, workers, hired help, and his father (Jonathan Pryce), who has decided to pay a visit, as he frequently does when he has no money, and has decided to bring a very destructive and ill-mannered bird to entertain the children.  Luckily, it would seem that everywhere Dickens goes in London, he finds inspiration for his story.  There's a bony old waiter who works at a restaurant he frequently eats at named Marley, his brother brings to Dickens' house his crippled son who is optimistic despite always being ill and having to use crutches to get around, and while wandering the streets, he happens upon a funeral for a businessman where the only person attending is the man's miserly and cold business partner, who just so happens to walk up to Dickens and say "humbug".  As Dickens frantically works out the story in his study, the characters come to life around him and start talking to him.  Mostly, he is haunted by the vision of Scrooge himself, who is portrayed by Christopher Plummer, giving an inspired performance that makes you wish it was in a better movie.  The vision of Scrooge enjoys taunting Dickens while he works, particularly over the fact that he can't work out the ending. (Dickens wants Tiny Tim to die at the end, which is not a popular choice with the people who read his manuscript.)

All of this is mixed in with Dickens' conflicted feelings about his father, whom he blames for a particularly hard part of his childhood, and leads to some of the film's more potentially emotional moments.  Unfortunately, these moments never have the impact that we expect or that the filmmakers want, because the movie is far too busy being cute, and having fictional characters pop up around Dickens to talk to him, give him inspiration, or insult and criticize him.  I understand that the process of writing is not exactly the easiest thing to depict cinematically, but there had to be a way to present it where it doesn't come across so forced and overly cute.  I think what bothered me is how broad the movie decides to play this material.  Dan Stevens as Dickens is frequently yelling to the rafters, racing about, and generally playing him as larger than life.  Also, the way the film goes out of its way to show inspiration literally falling into his lap wherever he goes kind of cheapens the creative process, and makes it seem like Dickens stole from everyone and everything around him to come up with his ideas.

The one aspect of the film that does ring true is Plummer's portrayal of Scrooge.  While the role of the famous miser is usually played quite broadly, Plummer finds a certain quiet pathos and humor to the character that the movie could have used much more of.  While everyone else is playing their characters to the hilt, he manages to find subtle nuances to the character that I have not really seen before in any previous interpretation.  He also delivers the film's only laughs as he trades a few one liners and barbs with the author while he is trying to work.  Watching his performance here, I started to think that I would be willing to sit through one more screen version of A Christmas Carol if Plummer were cast in the lead role. 

The Man Who Invented Christmas is pleasant enough, and may find a small family audience, but I doubt it will be remembered much when the holidays role around next year.  This is a movie that needed to be more honest and sure in order to work.  The way it plays out, it's a bit of a live action cartoon, mixed with moments of drama that don't work like they should.  It's watchable, sure, but that's just not enough.

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