A New Christmas takes places a year after a mom’s death, and Kabir, her son, seems no closer to emerging from his torpor. He is going through the motions of unenthusiastically resuming his life completely and lashing out at those closest to him until he decides to honor his mom’s memory by showing some kindness to a stranger, Kioni, a Kenyan woman hoping to go to film school in Manhattan. It stars Prashantt Guptha as the protagonist and Grace Wacuka as Kioni in her debut film role.
If you look at the poster for A New Christmas, it markets the movie as a rom com, but it is definitely not, and it is a mistake if you go into the movie expecting that it is. Actually the poster does not depict the characters as they look in the majority of the film at all, which is not a bad thing, just an odd marketing choice, especially since Guptha looks way better with facial hair. Either way I was eager to support an independent film which centered people of color and was set in the most photogenic city in the world, Manhattan at Christmas, so even though I claim that I am no longer into romcoms or holiday themed movies, my support of this movie and Last Christmas seems to indicate that I am a liar or maybe need to reassess the nuances of my actual likes and dislikes of certain genres.
A New Christmas is seventy-nine minutes long, but while I initially reveled in the montage of various iconic sites in New York City, they become repetitive. Also it is slightly less breathtaking to show Rockefeller Center when people are ice skating while fiddling with cell phones. I realized that the movie was leaning heavily on its location to win over its audience rather than its potentially engrossing story. It is a movie that feels like a newcomer’s film. The acting is a bit wooden and two dimensional. It feels as if they are still at a reading instead of speaking the words organically as if they were their characters. We are somewhere just a skosh above high school play emoting. The only person that really nails the emotion of her character is Preeti Gupta when her character is finally done with another’s shenanigans. Some characters should have been cut entirely since it horrifically set up the rom com vibe that does not actually exist. Also dear IMDb, why is one of the major supporting characters, Paddy, missing from your cast? Fun random fact: Swati Bhise plays the mother and made her directing debut this year with The Warrior Queen of Jhansi.
Visually A New Christmas is a bit dull and uninspiring when it involves people, not sights. Someone talks then the camera cuts to that person then cuts to the other person when that person is talking. It is a relief from feeling like a tennis ball once two characters are facing each other in a shot, and as a viewer, I could finally just focus on their interaction. It also felt as if the actors finally were beginning to relax a little because the actors were finally permitted to exist within their characters before they had to stop, break then resume again.
I had no problem with A New Christmas’ narrative structure although the dialogue feels more like a prose dump and relies more on telling than showing. The periodic flashbacks worked for me because it does nail what Gupta’s character complains about later on. The central problem presents as grief, but it is really a general dissatisfaction and tension between the life he feels drawn to versus the life that he is expected to live, and part of his ennui is paralysis now that he has no one to please and feels guilt about what he wanted. I’m not sure if the filmmakers realized that this was the protagonist’s real problem since it feels diffuse getting there.
I am not sure how I feel about Kioni as a character. I like her, but there were times when I questioned whether or not she would do certain things in the context of the film, especially given how certain characters would react to her. As a woman who has travelled alone, I know that there are times when I threw caution to the wind and just enjoyed the moment, but I also know that I considered when I would potentially be in danger because I was alone in an unfamiliar area. It is a balance, but it never felt like it was a factor that the writer considered. Maybe she has no one else to hang out with while she is visiting New York, but Kioni does kind of feel like a manic pixie girl because she kind of exists just to make his life better and be inspirational though her character does have a complete backstory and interests outside of Kabir.
A New Christmas seems somewhat inspired by Richard Linklater’s trio of films featuring Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy, but without feeling the need to make any definitive statements about the protagonist’s relationship with other people, which is generally a good feature because rom coms require a suspension of disbelief when it comes to two people connecting and how it automatically falls into tropes such as love at first sight. Still there seemed to be a weird conflict between the marketing of the film versus the actual film. The characters shut down the idea of a relationship between Kioni and Kabir hard, but still seemed enamored with characters mistaking them for being together. On one hand, this protagonist would be even more unlikeable if the goal was a relationship instead of a willingness to move forward. On the other hand, why is Kioni treated as if she is the Schrodinger’s cat of romance: a perfect soul mate love interest while simultaneously not being a prospect? Unfortunately the movie waited too late for the protagonist to discuss all his issues with Kioni as opposed to devoting more time to showing it in the flashbacks. While not wholly unrealistic since it is sometimes easier to talk to a stranger, it is a lot to put in after a single day together. Some of the language felt extremely awkward as if a person of color did not write it when it got into a discussion about racism. It felt as if it wanted to hit The Big Sick’s notes, but did not understand how to organically get there for its specific character.
A New Christmas’ denouement is hella cheesy and is supposed to be more moving than it is. It is realistic for everyone to silently let this character have his moment of resolution, but they felt like extras as they just awkwardly watched him and let the moment pass. We never truly see Kabir interact with others, who would presumably know him and what happened last year. Being reintroduced to society should have been a more communal, touching moment with these people, but it is as if they are complete strangers and only Paddy and Kioni are his real friends, which is kind of messed up, but probably just a writing or editing mistake, a missed opportunity. It is another case of write what you know so it resonates and feels real. Also is Paddy a magical negro? He does have a restaurant and employs/befriends the protagonist, but I have no sense of his character having a life outside of Kabir.
A New Christmas is an earnest attempt to depict the multicultural life of the city for a group of characters, in particular an imperfect protagonist who needs to be fixed like Scrooge but without the assistance of the supernatural. It is mildly entertaining, but needed more work to effectively breathe life into its characters and stories. I don’t regret financially supporting it, but I could understand that not everyone would feel so charitable if they are low on time and money. When you are new to something, you can’t expect perfection on the first day so I’m considering it an investment, an encouragement to keep at it since we need more movies that are not afraid to explore the less comfortable ends of the emotional human spectrum.
