classicsoncall Review of Father Christmas Is Back

Father Christmas Is Back (2021)

"For once, I want this family to have the perfect Christmas."

[4/10 · 4 December 2021]

If you haven't seen this one yet, let me save you the trouble. I really don't know how the film makers managed to put together such a poor product with the otherwise talented cast of players that appears here. It's perhaps a toss-up as to who gave the more cringe worthy, over the top performance between Nathalie Cox as Caroline Christmas-Hope and April Bowlby as Jackie, the fiancee of Kelsey Grammer's character, James Christmas. I'd easily give it to Bowlby except for the fact she only had about half as much screen time as Cox, who's just nauseating as one of four daughters who are taken aback by the return of their father after an absence of thirty seven years. The story offers a slight little twist as to the parentage of the youngest sister, and with the proper writing and direction, this could have been an effectively poignant picture, but it just gets doomed by such antics as an escaped hamster and a refreshing glimpse of 'cowpat bingo'. I read some of the other reviewers here who obviously feel the same way I do, although those that call it campy might be stretching things a bit. It would be campy if the characters weren't so annoying. The only one with any class seemed to be Caroline Quentin, who portrayed the divorced mother, Elizabeth Christmas, and even she had a skeleton rummaging around in her closet. I've seen and reviewed close to four dozen Christmas films so far, and the only one that scores lower with IMDb voters is "Santa Claus Conquers the Martians" (you can check my list). Now that one was campy.