Like many of the period biopics released during the fall of 2017, The Man Who Invented Christmas failed to garner viewers. (Side note: I’m actually surprised that the title did not draw ire from people who believe that there is a War on Christmas, and Christians in the US are being suppressed.) This film was more suitable for release closer to Christmas on PBS for Masterpiece Theater, especially considering that it was a visual depiction of Charles Dickens’ creative process while he was writing A Christmas Carol. I felt no sense of urgency to watch it when it was released on DVD or became available for streaming on Amazon Prime, but I finally did because it is suitable for all audiences, and it helps to pass the time.
The main problem of The Man Who Invented Christmas is that it holds no surprises unless you are a child or an older person beginning to lose your memory. A Christmas Carol is a well-known story depicted numerous times on film so it does not take great insight to imagine why Dickens showed such sympathy to the poor, especially when the film starts showing flashbacks to his childhood. He is afraid of repeating history and becoming his father. Armchair psychology is satisfying and fun. The film’s main twist is that Dickens is similar to Scrooge. Dickens’ imagination acts like the ghosts in his famous holiday story, and his work helps him deal with his issues. While I think that there is an element of truth to this unofficial self-help method of therapy, the narrative’s trajectory is fairly predictable even with the intertwining depictions of Dickens’ past, present and imagination.
I did appreciate that before The Man Who Invented Christmas introduces Dickens’ father, the movie shows Dickens worrying about money while simultaneously spending it like a profligate. Even when one knows better, it is still instinctually easier to revert back to ingrained lessons of coping learned in childhood. When his father is finally introduced, I viscerally understood why he was annoyed with his father. His father represented everything that he hated about himself-not being as good a writer as he imagined and putting his family in financial peril. It is safer to externalize that hate and put the blame for your brokenness on the responsible party than to fix your behavior. I genuinely empathized with the financial peril that Dickens was in and was a bit disappointed that this issue simply drops because he is successful. Even Oprah has admitted that financial success never erases the feeling of being on the verge of becoming homeless. While the movie does connect Dickens’ early brush with poverty and its influence on his literary and charitable work, it misses the casual daily ways that financial trauma manifests itself. Just because he took a risk and succeeded does not retroactively validate his financial risks as sound business decisions. The movie implies that it does, and all is well that ends well.
The Man Who Invented Christmas stars Dan Stevens, whom I’ve considered hot since The Guest, but is also a good actor though I don’t understand why movies are constantly trying to hide his light under a bushel by dowdying him down. Christopher Plummer may be a supporting actor, but he is the real star of the movie. With this movie and All The Money in the World, Plummer is aging like a fine wine and getting better with time. Their best scene is in the denouement, and Plummer’s delivery gave me chills, “I’m hunger. I’m cold. I’m darkness. I’m the shadow on your thoughts, the crack in your heart and the stain on your soul. And I will never leave you.” Plummer needs to get all the work, and he deserved that Oscar.
The Man Who Invented Christmas is fairly sanitized for a film about Dickens. I’m no Dickens expert, but I vaguely remember that he had an unhappy marriage. While the movie showed how underappreciated his wife was, their marriage is still pretty joyous. When an Irish maid who is more his intellectual equal is introduced, I thought the movie was going to show hints of his wandering eye, but it is all innocent enthusiasm for stories. There is not even a scintilla of evidence that he had mommy issues too. This story is less a biopic and more an entertaining psychological profile. I was also secretly hoping that the movie would reveal if A Christmas Carol had literary influences such as Luke 16:19-31. I often think that A Christmas Carol is a retelling of the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, but with a happy ending. I did appreciate the shout out to Varney the Vampire.
The Man Who Invented Christmas’ strength is revealing the difficulties of getting the book written and published in time for Christmas. It gets to be a bit twee in how Dickens repeatedly finds ways at the last minute to create further tension regarding whether or not he will make the deadline. Spoiler alert: he does. I feel as if a scene was cut out in which Dickens helps his agent, Forster, get the girl. My unofficial favorite comedic character was Thackeray who would use sympathy to make fun of people to their face. Thackeray would make a great star of a period sitcom.
If The Man Who Invented Christmas has value, it is identical to the lesson gleaned from A Christmas Carol: to prick people’s conscience so they remain constantly vigilant against dismissing people’s worth. It is kind of brilliant to find a self-interested way to encourage generosity. “No one is useless in this world who lightens the burden of another.” Help others to prove to yourself that you are not a waste of space.
The Man Who Invented Christmas is a solid family movie, but ultimately forgettable despite excellent production values and strong performances. Please feel free to skip it unless you’re a fan of the cast or the subject matter. If you like the themes of debt and childhood poverty, but are looking for something a bit more lively, get to the theaters and see Solo: A Star Wars Story, which is far less heavy handed in its treatment of these issues.