Dan Stevensas Charles DickensThe story
About The Man Who Invented Christmas
In 1843 Charles Dickens is a celebrated author whose last few books have flopped, and with debts mounting he gambles on a short Christmas story that must be written, illustrated and printed in a matter of weeks. As he writes, the people of his book appear around him and argue with him, while his feckless father's arrival stirs up painful memories of a childhood spent working in a factory. The race to finish becomes a fight over how the story, and its miserly central figure, should end.
The CineClaus verdict
A film about writing A Christmas Carol, and at its best when it forgets the tinsel and watches a man panic.
Dan Stevens plays Dickens as a writer running on nerves and unpaid bills, and his rows with the people of his own book are the liveliest thing in it. Jonathan Pryce gives the father thread real sting.
The title promises a story about how Christmas itself changed, which the film raises and then drops. Anyone who has read the Carol will enjoy watching it get argued into shape.
The family desk
Can the kids watch?
Our take: rated PG for mild bad language and brief scary scenes with figures from the book. The flashbacks to a young boy sent out to work in a factory may upset younger children more than the spooks do, so most eight-year-olds and up will be fine.
BBFC advice: Mild bad language, brief scary scenes.
Content advice & accessibility
- Where the advice comes from
- The British Board of Film Classification (BBFC).
- Our age guidance
- Editorial, separate from the official PG certificate, and never looser than it.
