A Sudden Case of Christmas (2024) – Film Review
Director: Peter Chelsom
Cast: Andie MacDowell, Danny DeVito, Adrian Dunbar
Certificate: 12
By Roger Crow
Peter Chelsom made one of my favourite films of all time in the early 1990s with a fresh-faced Adrian Dunbar. Hear My Song was an effortlessly charming romantic drama which marked the arrival of a formidable talent.
Sadly the director has had trouble matching the brilliance of that movie in the years since, and though the latest offering, which he wrote and directed, is beautifully crafted, it’s a bit of a europudding.
“Likeable”
It also commits one of many cardinal sins: features a script penned for a stressed, world-weary adult and gives it to a child. John Hughes used to do that sort of thing well with Uncle Buck, but these days it’s a humdrum cliché.
The plot: when learning of her parents’ plan to separate while on a family holiday to Italy, Christmas-obsessed Claire hatches a plan with her grandfather to get her parents back together.
The cast is terrific, including Andie MacDowell, Danny DeVito, Dunbar and the less famous Lucy DeVito (I wonder how she got the gig), Antonella Rose, and Wilmer Valderrama.
So, fabulous visuals and a likeable cast, but as long as you leave your brain in neutral, it should sprinkle a little festive magic at the most wonderful time of the year.
