Arthur Christmas review
With as many viewings as families take in of “A Christmas Story” or “National Lampoons Christmas Vacation” or Bill Murray’s underrated “Scrooged,” you would think it would be time to add some new classics into the mix. But the holiday genre has hit the skids in recent years with an films that could kindly be described as “lumps of coal”: “Christmas With The Kranks,” “Fred Claus,” “Four Christmases,” “Surviving Christmas” etc. To go back to a movie that might actually be considered alongside ‘Rudolph’ and the bunch would be the original “Santa Clause” with Tim Allen back in 1994. (Robert Zemeckis made a couple valiant efforts adapting “Polar Express” and “A Christmas Carol” for the umpteenth time but that’s only if you can get past those dead-eyed stares. And the Aerosmith cameo.) Well thankfully for fans of holiday films, the clever Brits at Aardman Studios (“Wallace & Gromit,” “Chicken Run”) have just produced what stands as something of a holiday miracle, a Christmas movie you can actually imagine wanting to revisit year-after-year.
The film opens with an elaborately staged operation: Christmas Eve. A gigantic spaceship (resembling the Star Trek Enterprise) the S-1 hovers over an entire city like something out of “Independence Day.” Then hundreds of elves rope down into the various residences to deliver presents with surefire precision. Santa (Jim Broadbent) is something of a lazy figurehead who delivers the final gift while remaining sleepily absent throughout most of the proceedings. But the high-tech makeover that allowed him to ditch the sleigh and 8 reindeer in the first place was dreamed up by one of his two sons: Steve (Hugh Laurie). He’s stationed back at the North Pole leading the operation remotely while Santa’s other son, Arthur (James McAvoy) who has a relatively less-stressful position answering letters from children. But after a close call during the present drop, one of the gifts gets left behind and thus, one little girl won’t receive a visit from Santa this year.
Steve insists if there were any way they could deliver the present before sunrise they would but that the S-1 simply can’t afford to take another run tonight and Santa, under the guidance of his advisors, relents. But Arthur simply can’t manage the thought of even one little girl waking up and thinking that Santa’s forgotten her and with the help of his grandfather Grand Santa (a scene-stealing Bill Nighy) sets out to deliver her gift. Tweaking the origins of Christmas goes back to the Rankin Bass specials (now acknowledged classics) but were already poking fun at these conventions. The film is bookended with sentiment but keeps things moving quickly with a sharp script by Peter Baynham (“Borat,” “Bruno”) and Sarah Smith (“The Armando Iannucci Shows”) who also directed. You’ll probably need a few more viewings just to catch all the jokes, which is a good thing since you’ll probably be watching it annually.
