Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
Dan Stevens | ... | Charles Dickens | |
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Mark Schrier | ... | Presenter |
Patrick Joseph Byrnes | ... | Stage Manager | |
Miriam Margolyes | ... | Mrs. Fisk | |
Morfydd Clark | ... | Kate Dickens | |
Justin Edwards | ... | John Forster / Ghost of Christmas Present | |
Cosimo Fusco | ... | Signor Mazzini (as Cosimo Massimo Fusco) | |
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Jasper Hughes Cotter | ... | Walter Dickens (as Jasper Hughes-Cotter) |
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James Heffernan | ... | Charley Dickens |
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Aleah Lennon | ... | Mamie Dickens |
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Ella Mai Delaney | ... | Katey Dickens |
Donna Marie Sludds | ... | Maid | |
David McSavage | ... | Hall | |
Ian McNeice | ... | Chapman | |
Miles Jupp | ... | Thackeray |
In 1843, the celebrated British novelist, Charles Dickens, is at a low point in his career with three flops behind him and his family expenses piling up at home. Determined to recover, Dickens decides to write a Christmas story and self-publish it in less than two months. As Dickens labors writing on such short notice, his estranged father and mother come to bunk with him. Still haunted by painful memories of his father ruining his childhood by his financial irresponsibility, Dickens develops a writer's block which seems to have no solution. As such, Dickens must face his personal demons epitomized through his characters, especially in his imagined conversations with Ebenezer Scrooge. Now with a looming deadline, Dickens struggles for inspiration against his frustrations and his characters' opinions in a literary challenge creating a classic tale that would define the essential soul of modern Christmas. Written by Kenneth Chisholm (kchishol@rogers.com)
It actually took me a while to put this movie into a box. Is it a biography about Charles Dickens, or another version of the classic story being told? It's both.
It's actually like you watch a theater play that includes special effects you all have to imagine yourself during a play. You can clearly see the theatrical approach that the director wanted to take here. Christopher Plummer is an excellent Scrooge, the perfect fit! Even though this film throws in a good bit of comedy into the pot, it doesn't harm the story at all. If anything, it brings a little bit of freshness to the old classic of "A Christmas Carol".
I wouldn't describe it as a Christmas movie, or something that the whole family can enjoy for Christmas, but it certainly is a (long needed) new and modern approach to this story and that is still fascinating me, that this story indeed, never gets old.