Movie Review: The Christmas Chronicles

The Christmas Chronicles ** / *****

Directed by: Clay Kaytis.

Written by: Matt Lieberman.

Starring: Kurt Russell (Santa Claus), Judah Lewis (Teddy Pierce), Darby Camp (Kate Pierce), Kimberly Williams-Paisley (Claire Pierce), Lamorne Morris (Officer Jameson), Martin Roach (Officer Povenda).

 

Most Christmas movies are bad. I think we all understand this, because after all, there isn’t all that much you can do with the formula. They are all a variation on A Christmas Carol or The Grinch, where someone needs to rediscover the true meaning of Christmas, which they do over a long Christmas Eve, with the snow gently falling, and Christmas music swelling in the background. And yet, we watch these films don’t we? We watch them again and again and again – sometimes because we have small children who like them, sometimes just to kill time while the weather outside is frightful, so it’s easier to make some hot chocolate and watch some cheesy Christmas movie. This year, Netflix has added generically titled The Christmas Chronicles to the list of Christmas movies – and you know where it’s going from the start, and it gets there in probably the least interesting way possible. Is it a bad movie? Undoubtedly. Did I still have fun watching it with my two kids as we all sipped hot chocolate? You know it.

 

This movie is centered on the Pierce family – who we witness through home movies at the start of the movie which ends at Christmas 2017, and we soon realize that this will be the first Christmas without the father of the family. The three surviving members aren’t handling things very well – but each in their own way. Mother Claire (Kimberly William-Paisley) is working too much to try and keep everything afloat – including picking up an extra shift on Christmas Eve. Teenager Teddy (Judah Lewis) has been hanging out with some nogoodnicks, and getting into trouble, and 10-year-old Kate (Darby Camp) is trying to keep everyone happy by trying way too hard. It isn’t working. But on those home movies, Kate thinks she sees a red sleeve – and that means Santa. So she comes up with an idea to get a better video of him this year. Needless to say, everything goes horribly wrong, and Santa (Kurt Russell) crashes his sleigh, and ends up enlisting the Pierce children in trying to get Christmas back on track.

 

This movie knows it cheesy, and it embraces it – no one more so than Russell, who seems to be having a lot of as Santa – especially when he gets to dispel the illusion that Santa says “Ho Ho Ho” all the time – by calling it fake news. There is also an Elvis inspired musical number in jail cell with Russell, because I guess why cast Russell as Santa unless you were going to have him do an Elvis inspired musical number in the first place?

 

Like many a kids Christmas movie before it, The Christmas Chronicles has a plot that is way too busy – moving from one place to another, one city to another, with lightning speed, but little charm. It also decides it needs to build the Christmas mythology from the ground up once again, and does so in confusing fashion – including some very strange elves, which I cannot figure out if they were cute or creepy (likely both).

 

So, no, the movie isn’t great. I don’t expect it to become a holiday tradition – like say The Santa Clause (which, admittedly, isn’t great either) or National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation or A Muppet Christmas Carol (the latter of which is the one I have watched every Christmas Eve since I met my wife 16 years ago). But, if you’re tired of all those – and just want to watch something different this time this certainly isn’t a horrible movie to watch – especially if you’re curled up on the couch with the kids, with hot chocolate (provided you’ve added something extra to yours). It isn’t very good – but it doesn’t really have to be.