Twelve Films at Christmas - 2

 

The Man Who Invented Christmas is a charming confection comprised of some authentic Victoriana and some knowing modernisms. Charles Dickens (a winning Dan Stevens) is on his financial uppers and suffering on the back of two literary flops (Barnaby Rudge and Martin Chuzzlewit) and so, with the aid of a cast of ghosts/apparitions, he bangs out A Christmas Carol - hey presto, writer's block cleared and Christmas duly invented. Uniformly well-played (in particular Jonathan Pryce in scene-stealing form) this deserves a place in the seasonal canon. 71/100.