A Christmas Tale has been booked as an extremely unconventional holiday film from most major reviewers. This is a selling point-the film is a "true" examination of the holidays that offers no traditional entry and exit. It's the direct contrast of Four Christmases and at least one reviewer pondered "If only American Christmas films could be like this one..." Certainly, A Christmas Tale is unconventional, using Wes Anderson-like bookmark introductions as an omniscient narrator dictates the various children's upbringing. Scenes suddenly cut off in the middle or change. Things are never really explained. Two characters have a major feud between them but the origins are never quite described.
This lack of knowledge and unpredictability gives A Christmas Tale an almost luminous ambiance. The film doesn't really move forward so much as float. Characters self-consciously talk about their own trappings in a theatrical way or muse about an event the audience was never privy too. It feels like the viewer is spying on this family, not in a Hitchcockian sense, but more as a privileged member. And although all of these distinctive attributes distinguish the film from more generic fare, it doesn't honestly add much. There is little emotional investment in the characters or their struggles, even though so much of the film depends on a sympathetic audience. The happy moments or the sad ones seem to do little to really effect anyone because such little is known about these people. The film feels airy and faint but it only lessens the impact.
One wonders why this approach was chosen. Perhaps to get the audience to feel instead of think. It doesn't seem like A Christmas Tale really wants to offer something different, as primed by others. Instead the filmmakers simply want to tell a story that transports the audience to France. They want the viewer to invest in these characters struggles and feel for them. But the film is loaded with such sudden and copious amounts of joy and the usual suspects- a scruffy but loving husband, a stern but fair mother, the black sheep who doesn't understand, the loving husband who doesn't complain, the adolescent child who is trying to find his place... the list goes on. But what's the significance? Where's the punch? What's the so what?
It's difficult to recommend this film even though the rating may not seem terrible. "Worth watching" is difficult to categorize in this place because the film feels like a continuation of this director's style but I know very little about his prior works. Check it out but don't expect much and you may be pleasantly surprised.
This lack of knowledge and unpredictability gives A Christmas Tale an almost luminous ambiance. The film doesn't really move forward so much as float. Characters self-consciously talk about their own trappings in a theatrical way or muse about an event the audience was never privy too. It feels like the viewer is spying on this family, not in a Hitchcockian sense, but more as a privileged member. And although all of these distinctive attributes distinguish the film from more generic fare, it doesn't honestly add much. There is little emotional investment in the characters or their struggles, even though so much of the film depends on a sympathetic audience. The happy moments or the sad ones seem to do little to really effect anyone because such little is known about these people. The film feels airy and faint but it only lessens the impact.
One wonders why this approach was chosen. Perhaps to get the audience to feel instead of think. It doesn't seem like A Christmas Tale really wants to offer something different, as primed by others. Instead the filmmakers simply want to tell a story that transports the audience to France. They want the viewer to invest in these characters struggles and feel for them. But the film is loaded with such sudden and copious amounts of joy and the usual suspects- a scruffy but loving husband, a stern but fair mother, the black sheep who doesn't understand, the loving husband who doesn't complain, the adolescent child who is trying to find his place... the list goes on. But what's the significance? Where's the punch? What's the so what?
It's difficult to recommend this film even though the rating may not seem terrible. "Worth watching" is difficult to categorize in this place because the film feels like a continuation of this director's style but I know very little about his prior works. Check it out but don't expect much and you may be pleasantly surprised.