Paddington and Wallace & Gromit have raised the bar very high for family comedies – at least partly, of course, due to the inspiration of that colossal writing-directing talent Richard Curtis. Curtis’s new film (as a co-writer) is this Netflix animation, based on his bestselling illustrated children’s books.
There are certainly some nice moments, including a cheeky self-mythologising dig at his own film Love Actually. It is a gag that sits interestingly, perhaps even unintentionally, with all the very Curtisian touches in the rest of the film: a school’s end-of-term Christmas show, a shy kid hopelessly in love with a girl etc. But for me, the sugar content is that bit too high, and there were times when we are in the realms of the precious and the twee.
The setting is the fictional seaside village of Wellington-on-Sea, with its picturesque houses and beach huts (perhaps based on Southwold or Walberswick, where Curtis has a home). The close-knit bunch of families living there experience a Christmas crisis due to a blizzard which is paralysing traffic and making it very difficult for the airborne Santa (voiced by Brian Cox) to see as he whooshes through the night sky.
A lonely boy living with a single mum worries that he won’t see his (divorced) dad. Two identical twin girls – one on the naughty list, one on the nice list – experience a crisis when Santa muddles them up. A stern teacher reveals her private sadness and vulnerability. A talented if headstrong girl – the director of the mould-breaking school show – takes charge of an anarchic kids-only Christmas when parents are stranded away from their family homes by the snow.
It’s all more or less sufferable, and it may well keep young children quiet at Christmas … but we surely needed a higher joke content.
• That Christmas is in UK cinemas from 29 November and on Netflix from 4 December.
