Just Another Christmas
Ratings: 3/5
Duration: 101 Minutes
Language: Portuguese
Genre: Comedy
Director: Roberto Santucci
Writer: Paulo Cursino
Producer: André Carreira
Music: Lucas Marcier, Fabiano Krieger, Gustavo Salgado
Cinematography: Julio Costantini
Editing: Eduardo Hartung, Roberto Santucci
Released On: 03 December 2020
Star Cast: Leandro Hassum, Elisa Pinheiro, Danielle Winits
Plot: Every festival has a fixed set of rules and rituals and Christmas is no exception. On the day of Christmas as per the tradition: everyone is eating the same foods we eat every year, watching the same movies, singing the same songs and waiting for the inevitable point where Aunt Margie gets so wasted that she stops making sense and starts slurring absolute nonsense. For some oldies and even youngsters, it is a ritual one must abide by but for most these days it is tedium to be stuck in the same continuous loop year after year without anything changing or improving. And that’s what forms part of the movie.
It is a cross between ‘It's a Wonderful Life and Groundhog Day’ for Jorge (played by Leandro Hassum), a father, who has always hated Christmas because it is the same day as his birthday. And there are two reasons for this – first he was always cheated out of a double celebration and second that the holiday's predictable.
Middle-aged and sick of having to dress up as Santa for his kids, Jorge yells at his catatonic father-in-law (played by Levi Ferreira) for not being mentally there for the holiday. The next thing we know is that Jorge falls off the roof reluctantly playing Santa Claus for the family. He wakes up again to face the biggest shock of his life. He wakes up to find that while it feels as if only one day has passed, it is Christmas again, and yes! a full year has passed. He has no memory of what happened and can’t remember a bit of the event that happened in the intervening 365 days. His wife Laura (played by Elisa Pinheiro) has to fill him in on the year's events. She tells him what the one-year-older kids have accomplished and about his promotion and their new car.
It is not long before Jorge shares with Laura his miserable state. Jorge is set in a loop – Christmas time loop, and this is just about to teach him the most important lesson of his life. He releases how with each passing year; he is wasting his time on unimportant things. Christmas after Christmas, he learns the frivolities he's wasted that precious time on -- an affair, a divorce. They have kept him from being with his kids and appreciating his wife.
In this time loop, he only remembers Christmas, so it isn't long before he wakes one day to meet his grown daughter's baby and to learn of a tragic diagnosis. The next time he wakes up, it is to the grief left behind. Will Jorge finally learn what matters and that forms the rest of the movie.
Review: Imagine you are in a loop and you get to pick up only one day that you would remember! horrific and petrifying, isn’t it?
The movie, Just Another Christmas isn’t just a comedic examination of Jorge, but it is an inevitable examination of the holiday itself. One might feel that this movie is just like another rip-off of Groundhog Day, as Jorge starts to anticipate every beat of the days ahead. But that isn’t the case because the same day is repeating, it’s because Christmas is built around repetition.
When every day is Christmas, Jorge can anticipate the rhythms better than most. But the film quickly diverges from the familiar mould. At first, Jorge is frustrated and exhausted by the way every Christmas is the same, but gradually, he is made to realize the importance of tradition. He starts to see the day as a chance to reflect - a way to get in touch with the ideal version of himself that only pops up once a year. The rest of the 364 days per year of working hard, struggling with family, and the indignities of modern life has no meaning despite the importance he tries to give to each of those days. He also accepts that the holidays are different experiences for people in different phases of life, as he goes from getting the kids hyped for Santa to not having any kids home for Christmas.
The film over a span of 100 minutes, eventually becomes less of an examination of Christmas and becomes an examination of life. It’s startlingly philosophical is quite serious for a holiday Christmas movie, but that’s all balanced out by the physical and great verbal comedy, including a hilarious ongoing gag about Jorge’s contentious moustache. The film looks more like an expensive TV movie than a theatrical release, but it proves that great characters and an inventive (though belabored) concept can take a project far.
Audiences from any part of the world will certainly recognize the feelings that surround the holidays, whether it is the dread of dealing with unruly family members, the anxiety of shopping at a crowded mall, or the healing power of the Christmas spirit when we finally decide to embrace it. Christmas is the most wonderful time of the year, but it’s also a pain in the ass, and it can be incredibly depressing for some people. Finally, there is a movie that fully recognizes both and is all the better for it.
It is a sweet movie for a cold night on a holiday with family!
