Joel's Movie Christmas List

Last year, I wrote on 4 or 5 Christmas movies.  This year, I thought I would put together a list of Christmas favorites.  Christmas movies could be defined a lot of ways.  In the end, a Christmas movie is usually a movie that is set at Christmas time, and it almost always deals with all of the complexity, joy, rage and poignancy that this time of year brings.  Some of the movies on this list are sentimental favorites, while others may not be ones that would be traditionally thought of as "Christmas movies."  I have even found certain movies to be a joy to watch at this time of year because there is a great scene or set of scenes set at Christmas which make me want the movie during advent and Christmas.  In any case, all of them are ones that I have returned to, and usually, I return to watch them again between Thanksgiving and New Years.  By the way, you will not find "Christmas Story".  I find "Christmas Story" annoying, so I don't have warm feelings about it.  Maybe I'll give it another try some time...until then, here are my picks...

Love Actually

A textured, hilarious, overambitious and sentimental treat.  This movie follows story lines involving several Londoners (including the Prime Minister) which all touch on very different elements of the concept of love.  This is not a family film, though I will say that it makes some profound points in the midst of some raucous and bawdy humor.  For instance, take the plot involving John and Judy.  To me, this plot line sums up what this movie is about.  John and Judy are two "actors" who are filming scenes as body doubles for sex scenes.  As they engage in their "work", even though they are engaged in intimate behavior, they discuss the traffic they had coming in to work.  This plot line shows the fact that there is more to love than the physical.  In the most heartbreaking story line, Laura Linney plays an American living in London who is in love with a coworker.  She gets her chance with him, but it becomes clear that things are more complicated than the viewer first realized.  The cast is full of great actors, and another plot line which involves an aging rock star and his manger always brings the laughs.  The movie also has a great soundtrack, which adds to the texture of the movie.  This movie is always great to watch again with the Christmas tree lit.  Here's a link to my article on it from last year.

About a Boy

Another good example of a movie that happens around Christmas, but is not about Christmas.  Will Freeman's (Hugh Grant) completely shallow existence is made possible by the fact that his father wrote a very famous Christmas pop song.  He lives off the royalties and spends all his time listening to music, watching television, and bedding women.  One day, he realizes that single mothers are a treasure trove of beautiful, emotionally vulnerable women.  So, he makes up a story about being a single dad and begins attending a single parents' support group.  Of course, this fateful decision sets in motion a series of events that challenge his whole lifestyle.  He meets a troubled single mother (Toni Colette) and her young son, and her son ends up working his way into Will's life.  The best part of this movie to me is the title...which "boy" is the movie about?  Watch the movie and decide for yourself.

Miracle on 34th Street

This is a great fantasy.  Some of the best fantasies are set in the real world.  This movie follows a single mother named Doris (Maureen O' Hara) and her daughter Susie (Natalie Wood).  Doris works at Macy's Department store in New York, and the beginning of the movie depicts her organizing the famous Macy's Thanksgiving Parade.  When the actor hired to play Santa Claus for the parade turns up drunk ("It's cold, a man's got to do something to keep warm"), Doris is forced to hire a passerby who looks like Santa Claus and claims to have experience with the part.  The man ends up being Kris Kringle, and he is convinced that he is really Santa Claus.  Kringle stays on as the Macy's Santa, and works his way into the life of the cynical Doris and her daughter Susie, who has been trained in the same cynicism by her mother.  When Kris moves to Manhattan with Fred Gayley (Doris's next door neighbor and suitor), things take an unexpected turn and "Santa" goes on trial for lunacy.  This was a film that was always on in our home growing up.  It means a lot to me, but that wouldn't mean a whole lot if the movie itself wasn't so enchanting. 

Shadowlands

I'm bending my own definition here, but there is a wonderful section in the middle of this movie that is set at Christmas.  Because of that section, I always associate this movie with Christmas.  The movie follows the story of real life author CS Lewis and American Joy Greshham and her son Douglas.  In the movie, Lewis and his brother Warnie are confirmed bachelors.  Lewis is an Oxford Don who presides over a world that has very few challenges for him.  He begins receiving letters from Joy as she is a fan of his writing, and her son is a fan of The Chronicls of Narnia, Lewis' famous children's books.  They end up marrying for convenience, as Joy is trying to escape an abusive marriage.  Only after their marriage do they begin to realize that they truly love each other.  Then, Joy is stricken with cancer, and Lewis is faced with the reality that he may lose his wife.  It is a striking depiction of faith, suffering, and how Christians deal with suffering.  And Anthony Hopkins and Debra Winger are absolutely brilliant in the two lead roles.  The section in the middle set at Christmas and the fact that Christ came into a world of this kind of suffering make this a great Christmas movie for me.

Home Alone

I just watched this one last week with my kids, and I have to admit, it holds up pretty well.  One of the things that the late John Hughes (who wrote this movie) will always be remembered for is his ability to combine juvenile humor with touching poignancy.  When a young boy (Macaulay Culkin) is accidentally left home alone by his parents as they travel to Europe for Christmas, he is left to fend for himself.  This gets even more interesting as a pair of burglars (Daniel Stern and Joe Pesci) try to rob his house.  The pratfalls involved will tickle most people's funny bone.  I seem to remember my late grandfather, of all people, cracking up while seeing the bumbling burglars take one piece of abuse after another.  That and the relationship Kevin ends up having with a mysterious neighbor make for a heart warming piece of fluff.

The Santa Clause

Another entry with very little gravitas, but a whole lot of fun.  In this celebration of the other side of Christmas (nothing sacred here folks) Scott Calvin (Tim Allen) unknowingly agrees to "become" the next Santa Claus.  As Scott tries to mend his relationship with his son, he rediscovers a lot of joy in life.  This is another piece of fluff, but a fun one, and the kids loved it.

While You Were Sleeping

Sure, it has the same pop songs as almost any other romantic comedy of its era.  Sure, it has a certain formulaic quality to it.  But it has two things going for it.  First of all, my wife really likes it, and I like watching it with her.  Any movie that you can share with a loved one makes it a favorite.  Second, there is something substantial about this movie that is hard to put my finger on.  Perhaps it's the tone that depicts a family spending time together at Christmas.  After all, since my whole family had practically 2 weeks off when I was growing up, the hours spent with family that this movie depicts is familiar to me.  In that light, there are also some big laughs, as the foibles of different family members are on display.  Perhaps it's the believability of Sandra Bullock and Bill Pullman in their roles.  Or perhaps it's the ensemble cast which provides a lot of structure and laughs to this comfortable tale.  Whatever it is, this movie seems to be greater than the sum of its parts, and that's always noteworthy.

It's A Wonderful Life

A mixed bag for me...I wrote about this one last year, and I haven't changed my mind.  There's no denying its place in the film pantheon, but this movie is a train wreck.  Here's a link to what I wrote last year about this movie.  Overall, this is a complex story which seems to have sentimentality, but in the end ends up feeling empty to me.  Wonderfully acted and imagined, but tragically flawed.

A Christmas Carol

There are many versions of this beloved piece of literature, but my favorite will probably always be the made for TV movie with George C. Scott in the lead role of Ebenezer Scrooge.  We always watched it as a family, and my father loved it.  What sets this version apart from other depictions is the emotional impact that it makes.  What's more, the impact the movie has also sets it apart as a film of any kind.  In the familiar tale, miser Ebenezer Scrooge is visited by  3 spirits in an attempt to reclaim his soul from darkness.  As Scrooge begins to see the reality of his wasted life, some of the scenes of his redemption are truly cathartic.  When I watch them, I actually feel excited for Scrooge, since he has a new lease on life.  I particularly am moved every time I see the reformed Scrooge visit his cheerful nephew Fred.  It is in this scene that we see the genuine transformation of this man into a kind person.  While the center of Christmas is far deeper than simple human charity, surely one of the benefits of the holiday is the spirit of charity that it invokes in many people, and this movie captures that very well.


Hopefully, there will be others in the years ahead that can be added to the list.  We have watched "Elf" a couple of times and have liked it, but it hasn't yet made it on to a favorites list.  Let me know some of your favorites!  Happy Holidays.