(spoiler free)
‘A Christmas Carol’ is arguably one of the best known Christmas stories of all time, maybe even more famous than the Nativity story itself. It’s a story that has had countless adaptations with numerous versions of it usually featuring heavily in Christmas specials every festive season. ‘The Man Who Invented Christmas’ is the story behind the book, focusing on how author Charles Dickens came to write the acclaimed novel.
The man tasked with portraying Charles Dickens, is the English actor Dan Stevens maybe most well known from his role in ‘Beauty and the Beast’ earlier this year. He gives a very spirited performance as the English author, in doing so he single-handily propels the film forward giving it a much needed lease of life. The rest of the cast which includes; Christopher Plummer, Jonathan Pryce and Simon Callow are all fine but it’s the narrative which causes the film real problems. Can a story of how an author wrote a book really be engaging enough to make a feature film, if ‘The Man Who Invented Christmas’ is anything to go by I think that would be a negative. Maybe the issue is that audiences will be too familiar with this story and as a result it just feels like a cheap retread of a tale already told. The film doesn’t even feel that Christmassy considering it’s festive promotion. The spirit conveyed in the final scenes is pleasant but ultimately everything leading up to this point is unfortunately rather dull.
A more ambitious biopic of Charles Dickens maybe would have made for a better film, something similar to ‘Goodbye Christoper Robin’ which we saw earlier in the year. That film is proof that there can be merit to learning the story behind a story. However, here the same can’t be said. It’s a shame that Stevens enthusiastic performance isn’t equaled by the screenplay which results in this fresh twist on the famous story feeling anything but original. Save yourself the price of a cinema ticket and just watch ‘The Muppet Christmas Carol’ instead.
Written by Hamish Calvert
Rating − 4/10
Question: What is your favourite Dan Stevens film?
(Leave your answers in the comments section below!)
Thanks for reading this review and please let us know what you thought about the movie! Leave a comment below or drop us a tweet over at @HCMovieReviews.
HCMovieReviews 
Leave a comment