SLACK BAY
★★★
OUT 14 DECEMBER / RATED M / 123 MINS
DIRECTOR Bruno Dumont
CAST Fabrice Luchini, Juliette Binoche,
Valeria Bruni Tedeschi, Jean-Luc VincentBRUNO DUMONT HAS always divided
audiences as a sombre existentialist, but this
arch slapstick satire is guaranteed to intensify
the debate. Set in 1910 Normandy, the bizarre
storyline pits some twittish out-of-towners
against a family of beachcombing cannibals,
while a roly-poly detective tries to fathom
why so many ferry passengers keep
disappearing. The contrast between the
non-professionals playing the plebs and the
acting aristocracy essaying the toffs is as
deliberate as the Pythonesque over-playing
by the wonderfully sporting Binoche, Luchini
and Bruni Tedeschi. If the idea of Jacques Tati
and Luis Buñuel on a beautifully
photographed macabre seaside full of
surrealism appeals, you’re in for a treat. DPentirely dependent on how easily you can
swallow such Cheddar-scented narrative
concoctions. As Dickens walks the streets
of 1840s London (or, thanks to Nalluri’s
obviously limited budget, street), he snatches
shiny fragments of inspiration like a
gentlemanly magpie: an aged waiter at The
Garrick Club who gives his name as Marley;
a chain-draped safe in the office of a dour
solicitor; his own crutch-dependent, coughing
Tiny Tim of a nephew.
There is a perky, winking lightness of touch
for most of the film which in truth makes it
largely palatable. It’s just a bit of festive cheer;
nothing to take too seriously. After all, Cheddar
tastes great with a bit of Christmas cake. This is
only encouraged by Stevens, who plays the fussy,
arrogant but socially crusading novelist as if
he has one foot planted in parody, with every
mannerism and facial twitch turned up just
a notch. Particularly during the most meta
scenes where Dickens’ phantom characters
crowd around him, fronted by Plummer’s
sneering Ebenezer, and goad him for his
faults as an author. (“Shut it, or I’ll make you
bald with bad teeth,” Dickens snaps back at
his creation.)
However, when the story strives for
drama, it falls flat. Despite a twinkly turn
from Jonathan Pryce as Charles’ spendthrift
dad, the undercurrent of father-son tension
feels tacked on and soapily insubstantial. As
do the flashbacks to Dickens’ own troubled
past as a bullied factory boy — an element
whose precise relevance Nalluri struggles to
nail down.
Despite its talk about the importance of
getting the name right, the film also fails to live up
to its own title. There are mentions that, at the
time, Christmas was just considered “a minor
holiday”, and not celebrated in the way it is
today — our modern Yuletide obsession being
down to A Christmas Carol’s huge success, an
end-title note suggests. But this idea is never
properly explored and feels little more than a
footnote to a tale which, essentially, is just a
popular novel’s origin story, told with a touch of
panto. DAN JOLINTHE MAN WHO
INVENTED CHRISTMAS
OUT NOW
RATEDPG/104 MINS
★★★
SHOT CALLER
★★★★
OUT NOW / RATED MA15+ / 121 MINS
DIRECTOR Ric Roman Waugh
CAST Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Jon Bernthal,
Lake BellNIKOLAJ COSTER-WALDAU is a convincing
leading man in this narratively inventive
thriller that marks a leap forward for the
Game Of Thrones actor and the writer-
director of Snitch. A decade after stockbroker
Jacob Harlon — aka ‘Money’ — is jailed for
a drink-driving offence, he leaves prison
a hardened criminal with underworld
connections. Instead of reconnecting with
his wife (Bell) and grown-up son, he strives
to spare them by embracing a life of crime
with former inmate ‘Shotgun’ (Bernthal).
Shot Caller shares some narrative DNA with
the recently released Brawl In Cell Block 99,
but its gut- punches are largely of the
emotional variety, and the film is all the
better for it. DHCINEMATICALLY CAPTURING
THE creative process has always been a tricky
business. From The Doors to Shakespeare In Love,
more often than not it’s led us into that cheesy
territory where everything all-too-neatly falls into
place with an “I got it!” eureka moment. Which
presents a pitfall you’d think director Bharat
Nalluri (Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day) and writer
Susan Coyne might have avoided when adapting
historian Les Standiford’s account of A Christmas
Carol’s birth. But it’s a pitfall they appear to have
happily jumped into with both feet.
“Get the name right,” Dan Stevens’ Charles
Dickens explains at one point during The Man
Who Invented Christmas, “and if you’re lucky
the character will appear.” What then follows is
Stevens pacing around in his study, chewing over
potential monikers (“Scrimple? Scrunge?”) for
his troublesome new novel’s protagonist. Until he
faces the camera with a look of revelatory
joy, spreads his arms wide and announces,
“SCROOGE!” A light flashes, a blast of wind
sends his Victorian locks flailing, and Scrooge
himself manifests in the scowling form of
Christopher Plummer. Yep. He got the name
right and the character literally appeared.
How much you enjoy Nalluri’s film is
DIRECTOR Bharat Nalluri
CAST Dan Stevens, Christopher Plummer,
Jonathan Pryce, Morfydd Clark
PLOT October 1843. After a trio of flops, celebrated
Victorian novelist Charles Dickens (Stevens) is
running out of money and in desperate need of
a hit. Then he lands on an idea: a festive ghost
story about a miserly old businessman. But can
he fight writer’s block and finish it by Christmas?