Review of The Man Who Invented Christmas (2017) by Ken R — 30 Sep 2018

Sumptuous production values lift this vibrant telling of Mr Dickens's life and work well above the average. Art direction, sets, lighting and slick CGI combine to take us back to those grim days of 1840s England.

Christopher Plumber's Scrooge is almost frighteningly lifted from the pages of this iconic book and analysed - but for me, Dan Steven's Dickens was at times a little over the top (but maybe Charles might have been this scatty, along the lines of Mozart?) Having the books characters interact with their creator injects some amazing depth into many scenes -it also allows us to look into Charles's rather tortured childhood.

Good script, direction and music keep this, at times, overly chaotic movie pretty much on track. It would also quite certainly seem that Mr Dickens classic book was responsible for bringing the Christmas spirit back firmly into British life, and indeed the world - contributions to charity increased (a good thing to achieve indeed!) and Christmas Cards were introduced (although in certain respects, this is perhaps more in line with the commercialisation of Christmas -not so good) - but, not so sure about the title - may be the film could have had a more imaginative name.

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