The Man Who Invented Christmas

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I really wanted to like this movie but alas that was not in the cards. Dan Stevens, seen previously as the Beast in the live action remake of Beauty and the Beast merely whimpered as Charles Dickens. It was almost a manic portrayal of Dickens whose life seems to be falling apart. Sad to say skip this one. One present to leave under the tree.

The intention of this film was to offer insights into the genius of Charles Dickens in the writing of his beloved novel "A Christmas Carol." Unfortunately, the clumsy and meandering fantasy was an unconvincing portrayal of how a gifted writer becomes inspired. The film started well as we see the 32-year-old Dickens struggling to undertake a new writing project after three poorly received works, including "Martin Chuzzlewit," "Barnaby Rudge," and "American Notes." As Dickens wanders about London, he begins to get an idea for a Christmas tale based upon the people he is observing on the streets. It is at this point that the filmmakers make a wrong turn by having Scrooge and the other characters appear to Dickens in the flesh and guide him through the story. The film thereby turns into a "gimmick" in which we see the characters acting out their roles in front of the quizzical Dickens, who seems in a fog about all of these literary characters appearing before him as strange apparitions! In turn, we are forced to re-live Dickens' hardscrabble childhood when, at age twelve, he was forced to work as a grimy and "scabby" little factory boy, pasting labels onto jars of black boot shoe polish in a rat-infested factory filled with vile little street urchins who verbally abuse "Charlie" because he thinks that his spendthrift father is a gentleman. A second flaw in the film was to turn Dickens himself into a Scrooge, whose shabby treatment of his father and other characters ultimately leads him to an awakening to "let bygones be bygones" and bring holiday cheer to one and all. The great realization that comes to Dickens is that "no one is useless in this world that lightens the burden of another." In the act of writing "A Christmas Carol," Dickens is supposed to be lightening the collective burden of the world. Unfortunately, the excessive sentiment was forced and artificial. For us as the audience, the "burden" was to be forced to sit through this silliness. While the Victorian costumes were effective and the performers were well-cast, the ultimate effect was neither a compelling biographical film nor a serious attempt to understand the way that a novelist develops characters and narrative. Above all, the attempt at fantasy never worked. The publication of "A Christmas Carol" on December 19, 1843, was undoubtedly a major literary event. It just wasn't celebrated very convincingly in this superficial film that portrayed the old "Boz" as a nasty old Scrooge. Bah! Humbug!