“What if we made Love Actually, but for kids?” Simon Otto seems to be asking in his feature directorial debut That Christmas.
It’s a cute idea. The film starts with Santa getting trapped in the worst snowstorm ever over idyllic British town of Wellington-on-the-Sea. He’s down to just Dasher, and they get into an accident. Santa is stuck hanging upside down off a roof, and decides to tell the story of the last several days. Santa then narrates the many stories of the characters.
It starts with the ambitious student Bernadette who directs a disrespectful reinterpretation of the nativity story at her school.
Twins Sam and Charlie need to learn to be more assertive and meek, respectively.
Danny, the hapless chickpea in the nativity story, grows up with absent parents who forget to check the weather, making him the only one at school for the day. He also has an incurable crush on Sam.
Mr. Yirrell the unscrupulous Turkey farmer, has been taking advantage of the townsfolk for years, but the blizzard gives him an opportunity to make a better choice.
Ms. Trapper, the school’s fierce teacher whose heart of gold has been buried under decades of experience, is one of the few adults left when the children’s parents are trapped on another island at a wedding party when the ferry closes and the bridge goes out. With communication out, the children are left to their own devices for Christmas, and Santa gives them some unexpected presents that all help them grow in their respective journeys.
It’s a lot of small stories, and at times, it can all feel a bit difficult to track. The animation style clearly beckons to Aardman Animation, the studio behind hits like Wallace and Gromit, Shaun the Sheep, and Chicken Run. And it does provide the same comforting charm as those films, but it lacks the distinct character design necessary to track eight rosy-cheeked British kid protagonists across their various stories.
It’s no coincidence that the film evokes Love Actually. It’s based on the stories of Richard Curtis, the director of that film, who also serves as an executive producer on this one, a fact that has been played up extensively in the film’s promotion. And it’s dripping in British flavor, from the animation style to the setting, to Boxing day, to the voice work of Bill Nighy.
The stories themselves are all cute. They all feel very human but mostly pretty small. You would think a film trying to find the small joys in the lives of children would be an easy win, and at times it does—but at others, it feels strained.
There’s absolutely nothing wrong with this movie. It’s visually sumptuous. The quickly moving plots, and several amusing action scenes kept all the children I watched it with glued to the screen. If you’re looking for generic Holiday charm that you’ve never seen before and that will capture the interest of kids under twelve or so, I absolutely endorse this movie for you.
But that’s about all it is. You can tell that the team behind this film was seeking timelessness. They’ll have to settle for enjoyable. But if you’re stuck inside over Christmas break, that might just be good enough.
If you watch this one with your kids, I’d suggest asking them how they would react on a Christmas morning without their parents. How well do they know your emergency procedures? How do they learn when they have personal shortcomings, and how can their relationships with others help them grow like Danny, Bernadette, Sam, Charlie, and Ms. Trapper do?
Two and a half out of five stars. That Christmas premiers on Netflix on December 4, 2024.
