That Christmas

That Christmas – Santa recalls the Christmas in Wellington-on-Sea that was blighted by a terrible snowstorm and the people of the town who came together to make it unforgettable.

That Christmas (2024) – Director: Simon Otto

Rating: PG

Running Length: 91 minutes

Starring: Brian Cox, Jack Wisniewski, Jodie Whittaker

Genres: Christmas, Comedy, Drama

REVIEW: THAT CHRISTMAS

Big in the 90’s and 2000’s with hits such as ‘Love Actually’, ‘Four Weddings and a Funeral’ and ‘Notting Hill’, Richard Curtis is known for his twee love stories. As the years lengthen on the re-evaluation of these projects is ever shifting, but having Curtis’ name on movie certainly no longer means ‘automatic hit’.

You can probably fill in most of the story for ‘That Christmas’ yourself and be pretty bang on the money. Even if the situations are cliché you can get past this with good characters and thankfully Danny and Sam are both likeable enough. Yet even then Danny’s strangely adult dialogue with his mother jars tonally, and several characters we’re supposed to root for are so lip gnawingly grating that when any redemption comes their way it’s hard to share in their journeys. The typical Curtis character doesn’t translate well and the adult nature of his saccharine sweet romances isn’t the best fit for what is supposed to be a kids film.

Overall, ‘That Christmas’ is perfectly watchable. However, there are several inappropriate scenes which parents may be unhappy with young kids seeing and, as there are so many better Christmas family films to watch, whether this one is good enough to make a dent in the pile remains to be seen.

CONTENT: IS ‘THAT CHRISTMAS’ SUITABLE FOR CHILDREN?

At a school play, children make fun of a new boy for wearing an unusual costume. A girl takes a photo of him with her phone.

The play starts with a girl yelling ‘Jesus!’ in a pejorative way before continuing ‘… was a cool dude’. During the play ‘Mary’ sings ‘Like a Virgin’ including the lyrics ‘I’ve made up my mind, I’m gonna keep my baby’.

Danny has a crush on school mate Sam who has no idea of his feelings. Danny and his mum leave each other notes around the house and one of her notes to him says ‘I love you…’ and the next says ‘… one day she will too’. Someone promising a teen boy that the girl he likes will ‘love him’ may not be a message parents want to instil in their kids. Perhaps Sam has her own ideas on this!

Danny is young enough to believe in Santa but when talking on the phone to his mum says ‘You were late (home) last night, hot date?’ She jokingly responds ‘Yes, with a 78 year old on a bed pan’. She then asks him when his ‘hot date’ will be with Sam.

Danny’s mum tells him ‘If love was easy, your father wouldn’t have run off with his 25 year old dental nurse’.

A girl, Charlie, is shown to be very selfish and gives another character long patches of dog fur for her costume. Later, this dog is seen in the snow with long patches of its fur shaved off. She also sets up a trap that allows the dog to be given a treat  – she is annoyed that the owner never gives the dog treats – and this trap also causes a huge amount of snow to fall on the owner – knocking her over and completely covering her; she cries out ‘I’ve been murdered!’. Charlie is convinced the owner is just mean but doesn’t know anything of the dogs diet or needs; in real life it can be dangerous to give dogs certain foods so kids imitating this could make animals ill. Charlie doesn’t suffer any consequences for this particular action and the movie doesn’t show it as wrong.

Danny takes snow off a wall and eats it.

Charlie sets numerous turkeys free, later in the movie one of these turkeys is loose in the middle of the road and causes a car accident.

Danny is disappointed that his dad is unable to visit him due to bad snow.

A young girl is being ignored and walks out into the snow by herself. It is a long time before anyone realises that she’s missing. There is then a big search for her which goes into the night and at one stage a character believes she may have wandered into the sea and killed.

CAN I SEE A CLIP?

VERDICT: IS ‘THAT CHRISTMAS’ FOR KIDS?

Inappropriate scenes and unlikeable characters make kids movie ‘This Christmas’ difficult to recommend. Content wise, we would say this movie is appropriate for kids aged 8 and over. However, it has been marketed to an even younger audience so we would advise parents to watch it first to ensure they are comfortable with under 8’s watching it.

• Violence: 0/5
• Emotional Distress: 3/5 (when the little girl goes missing at the end of the movie, it seems as though she could have died. Her sister is distraught and blames herself)
• Fear Factor: 0/5
• Sexual Content: 2/5
• Bad Language: 1/5 (infrequent mild cursing and blasphemy)
• Dialogue: 2/5 (suggesting Mary contemplated aborting Christ is disrespectful and offensive to Christians. A boy young enough to believe in Santa jokingly suggests his mother may have had a sexual encounter the night before)
• Other Notes: Deals with themes of family, single parents, pulling together when times are tough, teenage crushes, kids saving the day and consequences of bad behaviour.

Words by Laura Record