Review of the Christmas Chronicles of Netflix

By William Bibbiani

The Christmas Chronicles will debut exclusively on Netflix on November 22nd.

Some films are filmed because filmmakers have a story they desperately need to tell, a story that could change the world forever and says a lot about the human condition. Again, some movies are shot because Kurt Russell looks awesome in a beard and would make a really cool Santa Claus.

The Christmas Chronicles is this second type of movie, a fairly conventional holiday fantasy about two kids hanging out in Santa's sleigh, accidentally ruining Christmas and teaming up with Saint Nick to save the holidays and, by extension, the world. It's a perfect montage for a Christmas movie and that's good enough, but Kurt Russell is the one who puts the Christmas Chronicles on top and potentially turns it into a minor holiday classic.

As Santa Claus, Russell must reprimand children, guilt adults, be seduced by a car chase and thrill with the best of them. He portrays Kris Kringle as the coolest father ever created, full of magic and reassurance and just enough disappointment that you really want to change, if only to get his approval. The character plays a very different role from Edmund Gwenn's iconic performance in the original 34th Street Miracle, but in his own way it's just as satisfying.

Kurt Russell is paired, rather well, with his young co-stars Darby Camp (Benji) and Judah Lewis (The Babysitter), who play Kate and Teddy, two brothers and sisters left alone on Christmas Eve. Their father died last year, their mother is overworked and Christmas lost all her magic. But when they discover the evidence in an old movie at home that Santa Claus might be real, they install cameras all over the house to try to catch him in the act.

The fact that their project actually works raises serious questions about all the children in the world who have already tried to do so and implies that each of them has lived their own magical adventure with Santa Claus and kept their mouths shut all this time. , or that these two children simply did it better than anyone else. The text does not support any of these theories, but it is not the kind of film that resists scrutiny.

Instead, it's the kind of movie where Santa Claus panics in midair, loses his reindeer and his magic hat, and finds himself stranded in Chicago with two brats, mocking mishaps. It's Adventures in Babysitting if Elizabeth Shue was Santa Claus, and there's nothing wrong with that. Indeed, after conventional debut, the film becomes more and more imaginative over time, introducing new fantasy elements of Santa's mythology, including magical pocket dimensions and strange chainsaw elves.

Director Clay Kaytis (The Angry Birds Movie) debuts in live action, it's a delightful holiday treat and quite enjoyable. The basic premise is quite forgivable in the genre of the family Christmas film, where familiarity is rewarded instead of being decried, and Kurt Russell elevates each scene into something vaguely, even magically. A good Christmas movie does not only work as entertainment, but as a tradition. And it's easy to imagine The Christmas Chronicles, with its light-hearted humor, its slightly innovative interpretation of the magic of the season and its absolutely charming interpretation of Russell, becoming a respectable part of the holiday canon.

It may not be one of the brightest stars in the holiday movie, but that's for sure.