‘That Christmas’ Review: Netflix’s Richard Curtis-Scripted Animation Is Poised to Become a New Holiday Classic
That Christmas begins with a familiar dilemma: It’s Christmas Eve and Santa must navigate treacherous weather while delivering his highly anticipated gifts.
We meet the benevolent legend, voiced here by Brian Cox, as he rides through a nasty winter storm of strong winds and low visibility. A terrible illness has left him with only one reindeer (Guz Khan) to pull the sleigh. Tensions between the two are so high that Santa, at one point, threatens to get a self-driving vehicle next winter. But while the odds are not in our hero’s favor, the happiness of children around the world — and especially those in the fictional English coastal town in which the narrative is set — depends on him overcoming them.
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Premiering at the BFI London Film Festival, That Christmas is a charming animation from Locksmith (Ron’s Gone Wrong) that’s well-poised to become a classic. It can be easy to sneer at the arrival of a new Christmas movie. Genuine holiday cheer is tough to conjure and, if you’re not the intended audience for Hallmark-type saccharinity, the festive fare likely inspires more exasperation than joy. But this one, adapted by Peter Souter and Richard Curtis from the latter’s series of children’s books, slyly avoids the usual mawkishness by grounding its whimsical story in the real and prickly emotions of life.
Directed by Simon Otto (How to Train Your Dragon), the Netflix feature boasts a strong voice cast as well as a narrative that successfully finds the middle ground between winking self-awareness and the suspension of disbelief that propels all Yuletide tales. It is Curtis’s first foray into animation and although the characters are digitally rendered, the story taps into the same authentic energies that made his earlier works so beloved.
Similar to Love, Actually (which makes a funny cameo here), That Christmas observes how the lives of several people parallel and intersect one another. Santa, in voiceover narration, introduces us to Wellington-on-Sea, a tight-knit multicultural English enclave that became the center of one of his most challenging Christmases. His yarn begins a few days before the holiday, when the local children stage Three Wise Women, a riotous and progressive rendition of a play about the Three Kings.
A collaboration between outspoken 15-year-old director Bernadette (India Brown) and her fretful friend Sam (Zazie Hayhurst), the production includes contemporary cover songs and replaces shepherds with organic vegetable farmers. It is a refutation of the past and a vision of a radical and more sustainable future. It is also a chaotic disaster that doubles an efficient showcase for this interlocking narrative’s principal characters.
Danny (Jack Wisniewski), a new kid in town, is the center around which all the other plotlines orbit. He’s got a crush on Sam, but their respective personalities — she’s anxious, he’s shy — means they might be doomed to love from a distance.
When not daydreaming of Sam, young Danny fantasizes about Christmas with his father, whom he’s expecting to come visit for the holiday. The boy’s life is organized around distracting himself, especially since his mother (Jodie Whittaker) works long days and nights as a nurse. There’s a nice thread of That Christmas that eventually focuses on a budding friendship between Danny and his neighbor and teacher Ms. Trapper (Fiona Shaw), a cantankerous woman who makes the Grinch seem amiable.
While Danny wrestles with isolation and the emotional fallout of his parents’ divorce, Sam worries that her twin sister Charlie, who is on a mission to cause mischief, will ruin her chances of getting presents from Santa. The pranks Charlie plays, which mortify her sister and exasperate their parents (Rosie Cavaliero and Andy Nyman), include some of the film’s punchiest set pieces and most humorous one-liners, helping maintain its overall comedic tone.
In another part of town, Bernadette and her little sister Evie (Bronte Smith) are preparing for the holiday with their parents, the hilarious McNutts (Lolly Adefope and Rhys Darby), and some family friends. Coupled with the commitment of the performances, the diversity of these characters — both phenotypically and in terms of personality — help to enliven That Christmas, making it a film that can still pleasantly surprise.
The action really kicks off after Bernedette’s parents and their friends (Mrs. Mulji, voiced by Sindhu Vee, and the Forrests, voiced by Alex MacQueen and Katherine Parkinson) head out of town for a wedding. It’s a bold choice for someone to celebrate their nuptials so close to Christmas, but the adults, eager to spend some time away from their kids, rush off the island.
Never mind that school was canceled because of the foot of snow, or the gray fog in the distance. It’s not until after the wedding, when the parents learn the ferry is no longer running, that they realize the reality before them: The weather patterns will make it more challenging to return, possibly forcing them to miss Christmas with their families.
For all its narrative preoccupations, That Christmas rarely feels like it’s shortchanging any set of characters or their arcs. There are moments when you can tell the movie is an amalgamation of different books, but, for the most part, Curtis and Souter’s screenplay moves confidently between threads. That dexterity strengthens the impression that this Christmas story is really a community portrait. The effort to capture the essence of a neighborhood makes it easier to accept more fantastical elements, or moments that tip toward contrivance.
Otto makes the most out of the 91-minute runtime, so That Christmas never feels abruptly paced or disjointed. The focus on details — from how diligently the man who tends the lighthouse (Bill Nighy) changes the town bulletin every day, to the long simmering feuds between different citizens — makes the film feel immersive, and this fictional village alive.
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