Review of Father Christmas Is Back (2021) by Secretdemongf — 11 Nov 2021

I watched this with my mom in the hospital whilst recovering from getting my appendix removed. It made the pain worse. This movie is so insanely terrible, it's honestly shocking. First off, the cast and characters are awful.

There's no likeable characters, except for maybe Kelsey Grammar. This is weird in itself, as he's the absent father who everyone's mad at. The film tries its hardest to absolve him of all blame, however, which robs the movie of any meaningful exploration of problematic fatherhood.

Secondly, the structure is terrible. The central conflict with Kelsey Grammar gets resolved at the half-point, which means they have to find other meaningless stuff to drag out the runtime. The worst offender is the subplot where our lead's husband thinks she's cheating on him because of a pregnancy test found in the bathroom, which doesn't even act as the resolution to the running plot around their relationship troubles.

This is one of many confusing moments in the film. Another example is at the Christmas market, where one of the sister's boyfriends tries to win back his stolen car instead of... I don't know... just asking it back? The film never makes it clear why he can't just go to the people running the event and tell them it's his car.

It's a mystery! Just like the family's status as the 'Christmas family' (Seriously, why are they called that?). Most importantly though... There's nothing funny about this comedy. There's not even a joke terrible enough for me to have remembered it; that's how bad it is.

So, whatever you do this Christmas, don't watch "Father Christmas is back".