WARNING: MAY DOES CONTAIN SPOILERS
All photos and GIFs are credit to Bleeker Street
Dan Stevens is back in some of his finest acting yet, this time, portraying Charles Dickens during the stressful six weeks in which he wrote one of his most successful pieces, A Christmas Carol, or full title, A Christmas Carol in Prose, Being A Ghost Story Of Christmas.
It is mid-October, 1843. Charles has had a series of flops after his last successful piece, Oliver Twist. He is in mounting debt after having some of the finest fixtures installed in his home, his wife, Catherine, or Kate, as she's better known (Morfydd Clark) has just announced her fifth pregnancy and he's been brought down by the snide remarks from people in the streets about not only his recent unsuccessful work, but the fact that he's taken interest in the poor on the streets, which he had featured in his books, of which one man (whose wife is a fan of Charles', also suggesting the poor should go to the union workhouses, and if they didn't want to go, they should die quickly, thus reducing the surplus population, a quote Charles uses in the book) says do not belong in books and the rivalry with another local writer, William Thackery (Miles Jupp). He feels as though he's having a mid-life crisis at 31 and is desperate to write another hit, though he has no inspiration.
Then later that evening, Charles overhears his childrens' nanny, young Irish orphan, Tara (Anna Murphy), who later becomes his test audience, telling the children an Irish folk tale about spirits who appear on Christmas Eve.
Later, he stumbles upon a burial in a graveyard. There's an old man (Christopher Plummer) mourning the loss of his business partner. The man walks walks up to Charles, backing him against a tombstone and frightening him, looks at him and says, "Humbug!". Charles knew then and there he had inspiration for his miserly, miserable central character, for which he's yet to find a name for. He finds himself in his study making funny faces in the mirror and coming up with silly voices (something Stevens is wonderful at - just look at the scene where he's using a hilarious Irish accent to entertain his children. Also Charles' own daughter had written that she used to find her father in his study pulling odd faces in the mirror.) until he comes up with the name "Scrooge" and the old man from the cemetery appears behind him.
We realise there's a number of other people he's met in his travels that have inspired his characters including Tara (The Ghost Of Christmas Past), his good friend, John Forster (Justin Edwards) as the Ghost Of Christmas Present, his nine-year old crippled nephew, Henry (Tiny Tim, who both Tara and Forster had to talk Charles into not killing off, saying Scrooge could surely change overnight and become more generous towards his clerk) and his brother-in-law and sister as Bob Cratchitt and his wife, Mr. and Mrs. Fezziwig are a couple at the markets and an elderly waiter who is way past his prime in a gentleman's club by the name of Marley as well as his solictor, Mr. Haddock (Donald Sumpter) who was his inspiration for Jacob Marley, Scrooge's deceased business partner.
His publishers pass on the idea, with one saying Christmas is just an excuse to empty our pockets every 25th of December (a line he gives to Scrooge). Charles decides to self-publish the book, risking putting himself into more debt.
We realise there's a number of other people he's met in his travels that have inspired his characters including Tara (The Ghost Of Christmas Past), his good friend, John Forster (Justin Edwards) as the Ghost Of Christmas Present, his nine-year old crippled nephew, Henry (Tiny Tim, who both Tara and Forster had to talk Charles into not killing off, saying Scrooge could surely change overnight and become more generous towards his clerk) and his brother-in-law and sister as Bob Cratchitt and his wife, Mr. and Mrs. Fezziwig are a couple at the markets and an elderly waiter who is way past his prime in a gentleman's club by the name of Marley as well as his solictor, Mr. Haddock (Donald Sumpter) who was his inspiration for Jacob Marley, Scrooge's deceased business partner.
There is a darker, more emotional scene where Charles visits Warren's Blacking Warehouse, whose signs he keeps seeing everywhere, where he was forced to work at the age of eleven after his father, John (Jonathan Pryce) is sent to a debtor's prison. Here, he worked long hours while being treated terribly by his foreman and the other and the other young boys (most of which were uneducated).
The film was based on Les Standiford's book of the same name about Dickens' creative process during those six weeks that almost drove him mad and essentially started the commercialisation of Christmas as we know it today. In the Dickens' house, we see one of the first Christmas trees, or a tannenbaum, the German name, as he called it, saying now that the royal family had one in their home, it was going to become all the rage.
A Christmas Carol was published on the 19th of December, 1843 and the first edition had sold out by Christmas Eve.
The Man Who Invented Christmas was beautifully and thoughtfully directed by Bharat Nalluri and with the screenplay by Susan Coyne and incredible acting by Dan Stevens, Christopher Plummer (who turned 87 on set!), Jonathan Pryce and Anna Murphy.
Personally, I think this is some of Dan's best work, showcasing many sides of a character and that's saying something for me as I'm a huge fan and have seen most of his work.
I'm giving it a 9.5 out of 10 because a full ten would be a little biased.
THE PERFECT WAY TO WELCOME IN THE CHRISTMAS SEASON WITH A THANKFUL HEART.
No one is useless who lightens the burden of others.
No one is useless who lightens the burden of others.
