Dan Stevens plays Charles Dickens in this tin-eared, saccharine, entirely terrible comic fantasy about the writing of A Christmas Carol
This entirely terrible film feels about as Christmassy as watching England go out of the World Cup at the group stage. Dan Stevens – usually a likable and ingenuous screen presence – is horribly miscast and misdirected in the role of Charles Dickens in a kind of wacky and saccharine muttonchop-whisker-gawd-bless-yer fantasy-comedy of what it was like when he wrote A Christmas Carol and thus supposedly “invented Christmas”.
Dickens keeps bumping into people called “Marley” and “Copperfield” and nodding significantly to himself, occasionally writing in his notebook. The film suggests he wrote this Christmas tale out of the blue (in fact he had already written three other Christmas stories). We see him having lunch with his friend John Forster (Justin Edwards), getting exasperated with his Micawberesque dad John (Jonathan Pryce) and having...
This entirely terrible film feels about as Christmassy as watching England go out of the World Cup at the group stage. Dan Stevens – usually a likable and ingenuous screen presence – is horribly miscast and misdirected in the role of Charles Dickens in a kind of wacky and saccharine muttonchop-whisker-gawd-bless-yer fantasy-comedy of what it was like when he wrote A Christmas Carol and thus supposedly “invented Christmas”.
Dickens keeps bumping into people called “Marley” and “Copperfield” and nodding significantly to himself, occasionally writing in his notebook. The film suggests he wrote this Christmas tale out of the blue (in fact he had already written three other Christmas stories). We see him having lunch with his friend John Forster (Justin Edwards), getting exasperated with his Micawberesque dad John (Jonathan Pryce) and having...
- 12/1/2017
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
As Les Standiford’s book would tell it, Charles Dickens (Dan Stevens) found himself in somewhat of a creative rut after a lengthy and expensive tour of America post-Oliver Twist. He had published three flops since buying a new London home in need of wholesale remodeling and began watching his pocketbook dwindle along with his confidence. It was as though the autumn of 1843 presented him a make or break moment wherein he wasn’t certain he would ever write again. And then inspiration struck with the voice of a new maid (Anna Murphy’s Tara) telling the children Irish ghost stories before bed. This idea of Christmas Eve providing a doorway of sorts to the spiritual world planted itself in Dickens’ mind. Soon after Ebenezer Scrooge (Christopher Plummer) was born.
The last thing anyone needs in 2017 is another adaptation of A Christmas Carol — especially since none have ever come...
The last thing anyone needs in 2017 is another adaptation of A Christmas Carol — especially since none have ever come...
- 11/22/2017
- by Jared Mobarak
- The Film Stage
Chicago – The story of Ebenezer Scrooge, as told in Charles Dicken’s classic “A Christmas Carol,” seems to be the one constant that survives the commercialization of the holiday season. The story of Scrooge’s creation is told with expressive sentimentality in “The Man Who Invented Christmas.”
Rating: 3.5/5.0
Dan Stevens portrays the title character, that of Charles Dickens himself, and the film – directed by Bharat Nalluri (“Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day”), and adapted from a book by Les Standiford – is a scattered narrative between Dicken’s chaotic life in mid-19th Century Britain and his creative spirit in producing “A Christmas Carol.” Literature buffs will get a thrill as the characters spring to life as Dickens invents them, and they follow him around for the rest of the process, almost begging to be freed. Less interesting are the particulars of Dicken’s life, with domestic and familial duties that...
Rating: 3.5/5.0
Dan Stevens portrays the title character, that of Charles Dickens himself, and the film – directed by Bharat Nalluri (“Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day”), and adapted from a book by Les Standiford – is a scattered narrative between Dicken’s chaotic life in mid-19th Century Britain and his creative spirit in producing “A Christmas Carol.” Literature buffs will get a thrill as the characters spring to life as Dickens invents them, and they follow him around for the rest of the process, almost begging to be freed. Less interesting are the particulars of Dicken’s life, with domestic and familial duties that...
- 11/22/2017
- by adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman)
- HollywoodChicago.com
Dan Stevens (left) stars as Charles Dickens and Christopher Plummer (right) stars as Ebenezer Scrooge in director Bharat Nalluri’s The Man Who Invented Christmas, a Bleecker Street release. Photo credit: Kerry Brown / Bleecker Street ©
Dan Stevens gives a frenetic performance as Charles Dickens racing to finish writing “A Christmas Carol” in time to publish before the holiday, in The Man Who Invented Christmas. Directed by Bharat Nalluri (Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day), this film has all the Christmas color and Victorian period costumes and sets you could want in a Christmas film. The film is mostly a clever way to retell the famous tale, as characters spring from the author’s imagination while he struggles with his own family issues and races to meet a pre-Christmas release deadline, but it also touches on how his short novel transformed a once-minor holiday into the tradition we know today.
Dan Stevens gives a frenetic performance as Charles Dickens racing to finish writing “A Christmas Carol” in time to publish before the holiday, in The Man Who Invented Christmas. Directed by Bharat Nalluri (Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day), this film has all the Christmas color and Victorian period costumes and sets you could want in a Christmas film. The film is mostly a clever way to retell the famous tale, as characters spring from the author’s imagination while he struggles with his own family issues and races to meet a pre-Christmas release deadline, but it also touches on how his short novel transformed a once-minor holiday into the tradition we know today.
- 11/22/2017
- by Cate Marquis
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
IMDb.com, Inc. takes no responsibility for the content or accuracy of the above news articles, Tweets, or blog posts. This content is published for the entertainment of our users only. The news articles, Tweets, and blog posts do not represent IMDb's opinions nor can we guarantee that the reporting therein is completely factual. Please visit the source responsible for the item in question to report any concerns you may have regarding content or accuracy.