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The Christmas Chronicles (2018), Unrated, ★★★


Do you believe in Santa Claus? Well, do you? One can answer with a succinct, confident reply. But, when one comes to increasing age and maturity, reality surround a person's conscience to negate their childhood beliefs. However, in the case of the children characters, sometimes life can bite you hard when you are creating some familial memories as a tragedy can occur in the household. But, sometimes the Christmas spirit can re-kindle your feelings and emotions to get back in the swing of things with other people and yourself. It does share that lesson in this holiday film that is full of corniness and some bad acting, but when Kurt Russell is in the spotlight, the movie becomes a treat.

In Lowell, Mass., the Pierce family has been festive with their Christmas traditions but unfortunately, the paternal figure of the household, Doug (Oliver Hudson), a firefighter, died in the line of duty. The mother, Claire (Kimberly Williams-Paisley), struggles to hold the family together, as Teddy (Judah Lewis), the oldest child, is stealing cars. However, the youngest child, Kate (Darby Camp) is trying to keep the Christmas spirit alive. While watching old Christmas videos, Kate notices a mysterious hand in the shot and tells Teddy. Kate and Teddy are on lookout but they fall asleep as the video camera is on and Santa Claus (Kurt Russell) is delivering presents that Christmas Eve night. Kate and Teddy sneak on to the sleigh and after they scare Santa, the sleigh accidentally breaks, causing Santa to lose his hat, reindeer and bag of gifts. Now, all three are on a quest to find them both and save Christmas.


I though the movie was in trouble after the first 20 minutes because I thought the movie was depressing and did not go anywhere in terms of story or character interest. But, I do not like to base off a movie off a performance because I feel like it is the safest approach to give a movie a pass. However, this movie is one of the few exceptions because when Kurt Russell shows up on-screen, he brings the movie to life. You can tell he is having a blast with his scenes, especially the best scenes involving a couple of police officers and the prison, which generates a musical number. I am not a fan of random musical numbers but it made me put a smile on my face.

I thought the performances from the children were all right. There were moments from Judah Lewis that I thought had some dramatic chops. I did not love Darby Camp's performance, as I thought she delivered her lines as she was reading from a script and not as naturally compared to the other performers. Also, she becomes a bit too jumpy as she reacts to certain statements or seeing something so unordinary. But, in the end, the movie picks up with its energy as they dash to the finish line trying to save Christmas with the help of the elves, which look a bit more creepy than cute. But, if you want to jump-start your holiday season this year, The Christmas Chronicles is the Netflix movie to do so.

(The movie is unrated but I recommend it for the whole family as it does tackle some thematic elements and some deep stuff related to death and psychological confusion.)

***


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