The Man Who Invented Christmas

I should note from the beginning that I watched this movie because it was requested by my good friend Aly. Let it be a note to every one, I do take requests. So thank you Aly for the request and a really fun watch.

This was a movie that I had heard of but honestly was probably never a movie I'd go out of my way to watch. Also, put on the fact that it's November and I'm usually one of the people who say that before Thanksgiving is too early for Christmas movies. However, this movie gets a pass because its more of a historical drama, and it starts 6 weeks before Christmas which we are basically at right now so I think it's okay. Regardless of any of those factors, I'm really glad it was requested because I actually watched it, really enjoyed it, but definitely have some things to say about it.

The Man Who Invented Christmas is a biographical story surrounding Charles Dickens (played by Dan Stevens) as he embarks on writing arguably his most famous book, "A Christmas Carol". The movie begins after Dickens has written Oliver Twist and cemented himself as a writer with some acclaim and yet he is in debt and unsure of himself because his last three books were critical and commercial failures.

Eager to publish another book to settle his debts and get back on top, Dickens states he will write a Christmas story in 6 weeks, an unheard of goal.

The movie follows Dickens on that 6 week binge and delves into a really cerebral and emotional look into his writing process. There's a lot to discuss about this movie, but by far the best part of the film is when he is either writing or thinking up the plot for A Christmas Carol.

The way they portray this writing process is brilliant as Dickens' characters come alive and interact with him and you see the plot unfolding in front of him.

Christopher Plummer (who is just a national treasure) plays the incarnation of Ebeneezer Scrooge and he as well as the other characters of the story, most notably the ghosts start haunting Dickens as he writes the story.

And there is just so much to love about these scenes. Personally, as someone who loves to write, I absolutely loved the portrayal of the writing process so they had me from the beginning. But this is where the movie takes a lot of liberties and closely connects the story with Dickens' personal life and the personal drama driving the plot.

Another great thing is that the movie serves as a giant fan service for people who love A Christmas Carol. You can see the particular things that inspire Dickens and you watch the story unfold in his head on screen. Furthermore, while the audience knows how the story ends up, the characters don't know and you actually see Dickens building the story from the ground up. As someone who has read the book, watched many adaptations of it, and know individual lines very clearly, this was just a blast.

And the good thing is, these scenes make up the majority of the movie. A lot of Dickens' friends make for inspiration for the characters of the book and appear as the story unfolds.

However, the parts where its examining Dickens as a person and his relationships is where the movie's quality goes down a little bit. It's not the worst but it does exemplify the strange line this movie rides by being both a cerebral personal story of movie Charles Dickens, who is an interesting character, and how his personal demons parallel with the story, as well as a historical biographical on the actual Charles Dickens.

Biographic movies are difficult because life doesn't fit perfectly into three acts with clean cut mores at the end. Now this movie actually does okay with historical accuracy as far as my minimal research concludes. Dickens did go a little mad writing this story in 6 weeks, stating he saw ghosts, and drawing inspiration for characters from his friends, family, and people he ran across. There is a lot of historical accuracy in this movie.

But just due to the format of a writer looking inward and seeing a parallel between his fiction and his life, this movie lends itself to an intriguing drama that I would have excused a lot of liberties to examine. Dickens relationship with his wife is pretty lacking but the better example is in Jonathan Pryce who plays Dickens' father and he gives a really solid performance. I don't know if they were just trying to maintain historical accuracy, but the tension between those two, while there, doesn't resolve the way this movie really deserved. Yes it probably wouldn't have necessarily been historically accurate, but this is a movie version of Charles Dickens, why not flesh out the relationships between Dickens and his family some more to the message of the story more meaningful. You have some great actors in Dan Stevens, Jonathan Pryce, and Christopher Plummer, I just wanted to see an extra mile that didn't end up happening. The movie is still fun and interesting, I just feel like there could have been more by way of internal drama.

This movie tries to do both a biographic film about the 6 weeks Charles Dickens wrote his best work as well as tell a really personal and emotional story about a writer realizing his self worth. Sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn't.

Now, I'm going to go from saying I wanted the movie to take liberties to criticizing the points where liberties were taken but there's a good reason for it. One of my biggest gripes is the title.

At the end of the film, like a lot of biographical movies, they include some epilogue text stating the aftermath of the movie and some final historical facts. But this movie in this final text and in the title boldly claims that Charles Dickens "invented" Christmas.

I'm not gonna debate this topic too hard because I do think A Christmas Carol is one of most influential books of history, but I will say the movie makes a pretty bold claim and only backs it up with a few lines of dialogue and some text at the end. Again, I've done pretty minimal research but what I have found is that some of that claim is accurate. Christmas was a minor holiday at the time and the book contributed to a revitalization of Christmas tradition. The focus (rightfully) is more on Dickens and his personal development and the actual writing of the book, rather than the effects that feel more like an afterthought relegated to epilogue text. I think I would have actually liked to see more of the effect rather than just be told about it. Maybe show what Christmas looked like before the book was published. The only time we see this is (I think) a flashback of Charles Dickens as a kid celebrating with his father and it doesn't look that different. I think discussing the impact of this great book is important, just more important than a few lines of dialogue and a couple lines of text.

Overall, I really liked The Man Who Invented Christmas. I think its a film with some great performances, really creative storytelling, and takes a unique approach to telling a true story about a historic figure.

My biggest regret about this movie is that it tries to juggle multiple things at once. It tries to be a character study of an eccentric writer, while also trying to be a historical account of Charles Dickens, while also commenting on the impact of a beloved piece of literature. I'm not saying it couldn't have been more than one if not all three of these things, I just think by pursuing one of those goals in this case, it made the other goals suffer.

I would still recommend this movie, especially as we get closer to the holidays. It'll leave you feeling good and you might learn a thing or two about a historic figure. #CauseKnowledgeisPower

But those are my thoughts on The Man Who Invented Christmas, what did you think? Comment and Discuss below! I'll mention again that someone recommended I watch and review this movie earlier this week. I made it my priority to watch it and review it as soon as I could so I encourage you to do the same. Send me your thoughts and recommendations on Twitter as well @MovieSymposium and I will do everything I can to watch whatever movie you recommend. If you follow me on Twitter, you can get updates on future movie news and reviews coming out of this blog.

Thanks for reading!