The Media Man Reviews: That Christmas

Who doesn't love a good Christmas film?

It just never really feels like Christmas until you've put on a good holiday classic, eh? Whether it's a movie that makes you feel festive or takes you on an emotional roller-coaster ride, Christmas films are as much a holiday staple as putting up Christmas trees, wrapping up presents and eating Christmas dinner. Many Christmas films are timeless holiday classics, and many are corny festive guilty pleasures. Sadly, there's not a lot of modern Christmas films that really have that same kind of impact as the classics do. But every now and then, you come across a more recent Christmas film that becomes the next holiday classic. Arthur Christmas is one such example, going from a box office flop to a cult favourite over the years. For this review, I'm talking about one of my favourite modern Christmas films, That Christmas.

Released exclusively to Netflix in 2024, That Christmas is an interesting movie to talk about. It's based on a series of books by famed British writer Richard Curtis, best known for his work on Blackadder and Mr. Bean and for writing many romantic comedies such as Four Weddings and a Funeral, Bridget Jones' Diary, Notting Hill and Love Actually, the latter of which is also considered a Christmas classic. Richard himself even wrote the screenplay for this film. The film received mixed reviews from critics, but audiences were more positive towards it and the film ended up receiving quite a lot of Annie Award nominations, but didn't win either of them.

So why do I call this one of my favourite modern Christmas films? What is it about That Christmas that makes it THAT enjoyable? Jingle those bells readers and we'll find out...

Section 1: The Story

That Christmas is an ensemble kind of story in where it follows the lives of a few different families who live in the fictional seaside town of Wellington-on-Sea. The film covers their daily lives as they gear up for the coming Christmas season and also try to deal with the weight of life's problems, some of which may be too big for even Santa Claus to deal with...

Remember how I said Richard Curtis is also best known for Love Actually? That film is a film set at Christmas that focuses on the lives of various different characters that are sort of, maybe, kind of tied in together? Unlike most people, I really didn't like Love Actually because of how disconnected the stories all felt from each other and the constant nudity and sex jokes didn't endear me any. That Christmas is a similar kind of film since that too focuses on the lives of different characters that are somewhat connected to each other, only That Christmas isn't an adult rom-com and is more family friendly. But this isn't me trying to compare the two films, so let's just focus on That Christmas as is. So how does the story fare up? Quite well I think.

The best word I can think of to describe this movie is...wholesome. It's a very wholesome movie with a wholesome story, a wholesome tone and wholesome characters. That to me is the secret ingredient to making a great Christmas movie. If you make a Christmas movie feel-good and wholesome, then you've made a good Christmas film, and That Christmas succeeds in that regard. The whole movie is just a lot of fun and very, very charming from beginning to end. I'm not sure if it's because the cast are so lovable or if it's because it has that quirky British charm to it (this IS a UK movie after all) or if it's Richard Curtis' screenplay that does it, but something about the movie just really won me over and made me enjoy it as I was watching.

Some of you might be a little concerned about this being an ensemble movie since those kinds of films, if not done well, can feel a little cluttered and messy. I feel That Christmas is one of the better examples of this kind of story as the individual stories DO feel more connected with one another and all the characters come together to take part in the climax, thus making it truly feel like it's about everybody. Even the individual plots themselves are well told and it never feels like any of them overshadow the other whether it's Danny bonding with Miss Trapper and trying to enjoy Christmas in spite of his absent father and overworked mother, Sam and Charlie dealing with their own problems with how one's overly anxious and the other's overly mischievous or Bernadette and her gang trying to make their own enjoyable Christmas without their parents as they're stuck in the middle of a frozen lake after a road accident. I feel this film juggles these individual plots very well and each one does get a satisfying conclusion that also adds to the film's wholesome tone. It's just the kind of story where you feel satisfied with the outcomes and that your time was well-spent getting invested in these stories.

It also helps how the stories deal with very real problems that make the movie feel grounded in reality, and I'm sure some audiences out there can even relate to some of these problems. How many of us have had to deal with lost family members at Christmas time? Or are overworked to the point we don't even get Christmas off? Or have had to deal with the possibility of celebrating Christmas without our loved ones since they might not be able to get back in time? Because of how easy it is to relate to these characters and their stories, it only makes the cast feel more real and makes it so easy to get invested in their stories. Some characters such as Miss Trapper especially end up being more interesting than you'd expect because of this kind of story-telling.

I also like how the movie is a neat twist on the usual Christmas movie formula in how Santa is present (no pun intended), but isn't a main character and also isn't the solution to everyone's problems. The film even lampshades this by pointing out even as his work is done, life still goes on and giving the kids presents only does so much. That isn't to say he's irrelevant to the story though since his secret test-of-character helps resolve Sam and Charlie's story and his gift for Danny gets put to good use during certain scenes. I imagine some might be surprised how little he's actually in the movie due to being on the poster and all and making it seem like he actually interacts with the kids, but no, he's used more sparingly, and I think that's to the film's benefit as it avoids having him be a convenient deus-ex-machina to solve everything and keep the film mostly grounded without veering too much into the fantastical. Oh and as some have pointed out, it's nice to get a Christmas movie that actually takes place ON Christmas Day itself. Seriously, it's surprising how rare that actually happens. XD

And being this is a comedy, as expected from a Richard Curtis penned movie, this film does have a lot of moments that'll make you laugh or smile. While I wouldn't say it's an absolutely hilarious movie, it does have a lot of funny moments here and there. Bernadette's interesting nativity play is especially hilarious corny and creative. There's also a lot of witty dialogue and funny facial expressions too. I guarantee you'll be laughing at a few parts of this film. Luckily, it never overuses the comedy to the point it gets annoying and the more emotional scenes are handled perfectly with no poorly timed jokes to ruin them, which I consider a sign of a good comedy well made.

So yeah, this is a wonderful movie with charming characters who tell some fun stories. Easy to see why I like it, eh? I'm sure it is. I even have very little to criticize about the story. The only real criticism I have is the resolution to the stranded parents plot. I swear I'm not joking as I describe it to you. Get this: the parents are stranded in their upside Volkswagen bus in the middle of a frozen lake that could potentially break if they're not careful. They can't call for help and they can't get off the ice without risking it breaking. So in order to solve the situation, Mr. McNutt just conveniently happens to have hidden a Christmas present for his wife in the van, the present conveniently happens to be a phone that conveniently happens to be charged so they can conveniently use it to call for help! That was laughably stupid and just feels like a cheap resolution to this plot. It's like the writers realized "Oh crap, we have no way out of this situation for them!" and hastily came up with that stupid phone present twist as a lazy way to resolve the conflict. If they'd maybe foreshadowed this "twist" better, like maybe showed a scene of Mr. McNutt hiding the present in the van or something, it wouldn't have felt so out-of-left field. Then there's the fact he waits until the next day to give his wife the damn phone just makes him come off as incredibly moronic. Like dude, you, your wife and your mates are all stuck in the middle of a frozen lake! You have a phone you're going to give your wife for Christmas! Just use the damn phone! He could've gotten everybody out of this mess in five minutes if he didn't idiotically wait until that specific moment to give her the phone! It's so weird how clumsily this plot was wrapped up, because the other stories are handled so brilliantly by comparison. They really couldn't have thought up a better resolution to this plot then a lazy contrived phone-ex-machina?

Oh and I'm sure many will agree with me that Danny's crush on Sam could've been developed a little more. I'd even argue it's kind of unnecessary and the story didn't really need it, or at least should've gone further into it if it did need it. It was pretty adorkable at times, but we could've had more is what I'm saying to really make us feel their romance towards each other.

Aside from that, I really don't have any problems with the story here. It's just a very wholesome series of tales that give us a keen insight into the lives of the citizens of Wellington-on-Sea and that made it so enjoyable for me...

Section 2: The Characters

This movie's all about the people who live in Wellington-on-Sea, so let's talk about them.

Overall, we focus on the Williams, McNutt, Forrest, Beccles and Mulji families, so I'll cover each of them one at a time, starting with the Williams family. We have Danny (voiced by Jack Wisniewski) and his mother Denise Williams (voiced by Jodie Whittaker).

Interestingly, while going unnamed throughout the movie, there's a shot in the movie where you can see Mrs. Williams' nametag, which reveals her name is Denise, so I'll be going with that. I honestly feel Danny and Denise are the heart of the story as their plot has the most emotional subject matter out of the various stories we have in this movie. Danny's alone most of the time due to his parents being divorced, his mother being other-worked and his father being a useless deadbeat that never shows up and he's also very shy and awkward, which doesn't exactly help his case when he has a crush on Sam that he cannot spit out. Denise is a hard-working nurse who is so overworked that she leaves little sticky notes everywhere to give Danny reminders just so he can operate well enough on his own. That alone already makes them very sympathetic characters, but then there's Christmas Day itself where Denise is forced to come in since no one else can fill in and what should be a happy day for Danny ends up being sullen as once more, his mum has to work and his dad's not here. Once again, those are some very real and very human struggles, hence their plot was the most engaging and emotional for me. These two also give us the most heart-warming scene of the film, but I won't spoil that for you. You need to see it for yourself.

Next up is the Beccles family with twins Sam (voiced by Zazie Hayhurst) and Charlie (voiced by Sienna Sayer). Unlike with Danny, I don't really have anything to say about their parents, so I'll just talk about the twins. While Danny and Denise's plot was the most engaging for me, I think Sam and Charlie's story might be my overall favourite because a lot of the fun stuff comes out of that. I love the dynamic the two have in where one's overly anxious and well-behaved while the other's confident, brave and mischievous. Is it cliched? Yes, but do I care? No, because they were such a fun double act these two. I also love how they do a twist on the naughty child character and make it so that Charlie may be a troublemaker...but it's for Sam's benefit. She misbehaves because she's only trying to make Sam happy, which is pretty damn sweet if you ask me. The fact Charlie only does naughty things to people who deserve it also helps and prevents her from being unlikeable, she's never openly malicious towards the nicer characters in the movie. Her crowning moment for me comes from the scene where Santa delivers to them. I won't spoil it, but needless to say that moment is what solidified Charlie's character for me and showed she's not so naughty after all.

And finally, we have the McNutt, Forrest and Mulji families. Those three all seem to be one big family as they clearly live together, so I'm lumping them all together. For this batch, we have Bernadette McNutt (voiced by India Brown) and her infant sister Eve (voiced by Bronte Smith), Scarlett (voiced by Ava Talbot) and her brother Teddy (voiced by Freddie Spry) and Nisha (voiced by Kuhu Agarwal) alongside their parents Mr. McNutt (voiced by Rhys Darby) and Mrs. McNutt (voiced by Lolly Adefope), Mr. Forrest (voiced by Alex McQueen) and Mrs. Forrest (voiced by Katherine Parkinson) and Mrs. Mulji (voiced by Sindhu Vee). Personally, I feel this batch of characters have the weakest plot of the other characters, especially in the case of the parents where their plight was solved by a very cheap deus-ex-machina. At least Bernadette and her gang have some fun moments during a montage of them having Christmas in their own special way while Kelly Clarkson's "Underneath the Tree" plays in the background. The fact this plot leads to the climax is pretty well set-up too with Bernadette being warned several times to keep an eye on Eve, and the one time she doesn't Eve wonders off, so everyone has to look out for her. This lot may have had the weakest storyline, but it still set up an effective climax that brought everyone together in the end, so I'm fine with them.

If someone was to ask me who my favourite character is in the movie, it'd honestly be Miss Trapper (voiced by Fiona Shaw). At first, she's set up as this the typical overly strict teacher who takes her job too seriously and seems to have a bone to pick with certain students for whatever reason, but then as we peel away the layers to her, we see there's more to Miss Trapper than we think and she does have a heart after all. I won't spoil her backstory, but I do love how it's conveyed to us subtly and doesn't feel the need to spell it out to us. The scene where she looks at an old photo album explains everything about her and it's so beautifully done. It's so funny how I thought I would hate this character, but instead she ended up being my favourite. Speaking of funny, I find it so hilarious how she's such a force of nature that Miss Trapper can whip up the entire town into shape and get them to follow her lead just because she tells them too. How much influence does this one teacher hold over everybody? XD

And of course, gotta bring up the main man himself, Santa Claus (voiced by Brian Cox). As I said, he surprisingly isn't in the movie that much despite being on the poster and all. But I honestly think that's a good thing as it means he doesn't overstay his welcome and isn't a cheap deus-ex-machina that can solve everything. As is, he isn't pointless to the story as the gifts he leaves the kids end up being Chekov's guns for later and he helps resolve the Sam and Charlie plot with his test-of-character moment. Making him the narrator was also a good idea too being a Christmas movie and all.

There's also Bill the Lighthouse Keeper (voiced by Bill Nighy), but he doesn't do anything until the climax. I dunno why they bothered getting a legend like Bill Nighy to voice him if he was going to be such a minor character. Still, it was cool how he helped out during the climax with how he used the lighthouse to help find Eve.

The characters are a charming bunch with a lot of memorable personalities and developments from most of them and they alone play a big part in why I enjoyed watching this film so much.

Section 3: The Animation

This movie was animated by Locksmith Animation, a relatively new UK-based animation studio who made its debut with Ron's Gone Wrong in 2021. I haven't seen that movie, so this was my introduction to Locksmith Animation as an animation studio. And I have to say, I see great things ahead for this studio, because this is one pretty looking movie!

That Christmas maybe a Netflix exclusive feature, but the animation really is cinema quality here. The movie boasts really lovely looking visuals with a lot of detail, convincing looking textures and expressive character animation. Goes to show how even if it's straight-to-streaming, you can still put a lot of effort into it and make something that looks great.

Let's start off with the character designs and the character animation. The character designs have a bit of a stylized look to them where the humans look relatively realistic for the most part with a few exaggerated proportions here and there like the size of their eyes and maybe some of the body shapes. I'd say Miss Trapper is one such example of that. I also like how diverse some of the character designs are with a variety of ethnicities and skin colours on display, since as we all know, we live in a very diverse world. Bernadette's family is the best example of this as we have Bernadette, Eve and the McNutts who are a mixed-race family, then you also have Scarlett and Teddy and their parents who are white and Nisha and her mother who are black. Not that I mean to sound like that kind of guy, but it's always great to see some diversity rep in media, and this movie's one of the better examples of it since it writes these characters as characters first and diversity rep second. Not to mention it gives us more variety of character designs to see here, which in turn makes the animation more fun to watch. I will say the one thing that stands out to me as odd in terms of the designs are the designs of the turkeys. I dunno what it is, something about them makes them feel out-of-place here. They just look a little too cartoonish compared to the relatively down-to-earth human designs, thus they feel they came out of another movie. Maybe it's just a me-thing and I'm weird for thinking this? I dunno.

As for the character animation, there's a lot of expressive faces and body language that the characters show off here to bring their personalities to life from the shy and awkward Danny to the overly-cautious Sam to the bold and confident Charlie and many more. They even animate a lot of personality out of Santa and Dasher too. It's always easy to tell how the characters are thinking and feeling, and sometimes they rely on more subtle expressions to convey their moods like with Miss Trapper. Despite her overly stern and strict nature, even she manages to show a range of emotions and she even gives us one of the film's most beautifully quiet moments where her backstory is told through a photo album she looks at. It's a great piece of visual storytelling that tells us everything we need to know just with the visuals alone and not once does it need to be spelled out to us. Just a great scene overall for me.

Oh and given this movie is a comedy, there's a lot of physical comedy from the animation and thanks to the great character animation, they make it effective here whether it's a well-timed slapstick moment or some great facial animation that adds to the joke. Seriously, there's a lot of funny little moments here and there, some of them more subtle than others and the animation provides a lot of those.

As mentioned before, the film is beautifully detailed. The textures on just about everything look convincing and real from the character's hair to the bricks on the walls to the Christmas trees and decorations and even when there's food on the table. Just about everything looks so good here and the textures and lighting effects add an extra layer of professionalism to the visuals. Even the way snow is animated looks incredibly good! Wouldn't say it's Frozen levels of good, but still some of the best looking snow ever put to an animated film. The animators really make it look and feel cold in the scenes where it's snowing, especially during the stormy moments, and I like the tiny little details like how it flakes away when the snow lands on the characters. The use of a snowstorm especially made for a very effective climax too where it's dark and there's a blizzard so visibility is limited and the characters are in for a rough search mission. It even made the climax feel more intense because of all that.

The backgrounds are absolutely stellar too. Wellington-on-Sea is depicted as this small, somewhat vintage looking seaside town that definitely looks believable as a location in England. My country is home to a lot of seaside towns and having seen them myself, I can tell you a lot of them do look a little like what you see here. I also love how the backgrounds vary for each of the different families we focus on to give you an idea on what their personal lives are like compared to one another and how they live in this community. You have Danny and his mum who live in a two-storey house together, Sam and Charlie who live above the shop that they run and Bernadette and her family live in a batch of houses all close by with a big barn they all gather together in for family-fun. It was surprisingly fun seeing the many different living locations and how these characters live their lives in this seaside town and it also makes this fictional location seem more believable as a result.

I honestly have little to criticize about the animation here. Yeah the turkeys look out of place, the human designs might look a little too similar to Pixar characters, but I still think this is visual eye-candy and one of those Christmas movies that manages to look really great, as well as make you feel really great after you've seen it...

Conclusion

That Christmas is a modern Christmas classic and probably my favourite new Christmas movie we've had since Arthur Christmas. The stories are charming, the characters are fun, the emotional core is strong, the animation is surprisingly beautiful and the whole movie is just wholesome Christmas fun. What else can I say, it's just such an enjoyable new Christmas movie and I had such a good time with it. Richard Curtis seems to have a knack at making Christmas classics, doesn't he? While I doubt this movie will become as iconic as Love Actually, I will take this movie over that any day. If you want a great new Christmas film to check out, make it this one. You won't regret it...

And that's all I have for this movie. I hope you enjoyed the review and I invite you all to share your thoughts down below. Do you like That Christmas? Do you not? Do let me know.

Next week, we celebrate Boxing Day by talking about my favourite non-animated Disney films. Until then, Merry Christmas everybody!!!

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