The Man who Invented Christmas

It was a good idea but it made a terrible movie.

I wanted to love it,  I really did, but I didn’t. The concept of watching what creative influence got Charles Dickens to create the timeless masterpiece that change the way people celebrated the holiday season seemed like an inspiring tale. I was energetic to see it.

It reminds me of a TV movie from the 80s or 90s called The Dreamer of Oz  in which John Ritter played the dude who wrote the Wizard of Oz and we saw how he drew the fantastic story from  his everyday life.

It’s the same deal with the Man who Invented Christmas. As we learn about the life of Charles Dickens and get insight of what type of man he was. We also see where the bits and pieces of  A Christmas Carol come from, and when we starts to write the book, he lets his imagination go wild as the characters from the book come to life and somewhat haunt him like ghost until he gets the story finished. All the while the movie makes a claim of how the book itself somewhat mimics Dickens own life.

All of this sounds good in theory but it was a god awful job putting it all together. Trying to be both surrealistic and a straight narrative seem to be a hard task for the filmmakers and it made for a badly done effort.

I hate to be so harsh on a movie, but for the most part it was not the worse to sit through but it was not the most interesting of films.

I think they’re versions of a  Christmas Carol better suited to watch this Holiday season way better than the version about the man who wrote it.