Respond to these rapid questions in our The Man Who Invented Christmas quiz and we will tell you which The Man Who Invented Christmas character you are. Play it now.
Given that I’ve seen nearly all of the major motion pictures adaptations of Charles Dickens’ classic novel “A Christmas Carol” over the years, I can honestly say that I could go the rest of my life without seeing another version of the story. “The Man Who Invented Christmas” is a saccharine, clumsy attempt to create a new holiday tradition that tries to fuse the classic Yuletide yarn with a “Shakespeare In Love”-style literary origin story and manages to let both of them down, not to mention a performance by Christopher Plummer as Ebenezer Scrooge that deserves a much better showcase than the one provided by the film.
There are five children and a fifth on the way in the year 1843, and Dickens (Dan Stevens) is in a financial bind because his previous three novels have failed to find favor with the buying public. He needs money to support himself, his devoted wife Catherine (Morfydd Clark), their four children (with a fifth on the way), and an expensive home renovation. During a period of brainstorming for a new book, he receives inspiration from his new maid (Anna Murphy), who has a literary taste that is a little gothic (she is a big fan of “Varney the Vampire”) and who tells him about a folk tale about mysterious spirits being resurrected at Christmastime. When Dickens hears about this, he gets an idea and decides to write and self-publish his own holiday-themed ghost story in time for Christmas as a way of replenishing his bank account. This endeavor is hindered by one minor snag: Christmas is only six weeks away, and missing that immovable deadline would be catastrophic.
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The Man Who Invented Christmas Quiz
This may appear to be an impossible task to complete, especially given the fact that he will be attempting to work in a house filled with children, construction workers, and the unexpected presence of his cheerful but perpetually broke father (Jonathan Pryce). Fortunately for Dickens, everywhere he goes in London provides him with some nugget that he incorporates into his work, ranging from a lame nephew to an elderly waiter at his club with the endearing name of Marley, among other things. After stumbling upon the evening funeral of a man who was only attended by his aging and seemingly heartless business partner (Plummer), Dickens immediately recognizes Plummer as a model for Scrooge himself, particularly in terms of his constant utterance of “Humbug.” When Dickens is trying to figure out what is going on in the story from the confines of his study, he finds himself interacting with the characters he has created in order to figure out what is going on with them. The story quickly turns into a race against time as Dickens attempts to resolve the book’s ending (in which he appears to be very interested in Tiny Tim dying) and get the manuscript to the publisher before it is too late, while also dealing with the still-lingering after-effects of his father’s lifetime of financial irresponsibility in the hopes of reconciling with him before it is too late.
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About the quiz
According to Susan Coyne and Bharat Nalluri, “The Man Who Invented Christmas” is based on the non-fiction book of the same name by Les Standiford and is the kind of hard-sell holiday whimsy that may appeal to those who wish that more establishments would begin playing Christmas carols before Halloween while simultaneously driving others insane. Watching Dickens create his most famous work may sound intriguing in theory, but the execution here is more off-putting than delightful in its execution. Everything, especially Stevens’ decidedly manic take on Charles Dickens, is pitched as broadly as possible in this film, which is not particularly fond of nuance or subtlety in its storytelling. An even more serious flaw in the film’s presentation of the creative process is the manner in which it is handled. Although it is true that watching someone sit at a table and scratch away with a pen while working out story problems does not make for particularly compelling cinematic viewing, the solution to this problem—having him constantly pilfer characters, ideas, and even chunks of dialogue from his forays into the real world—feels cheated and does an enormous disservice to one of literature’s greatest imaginations. When compared to what is depicted here, “Shakespeare in Love” was not exactly a realistic depiction of the writing process, but it did have a cinema verite feel to it.
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In “The Man Who Invented Christmas,” the one aspect of the film that works exceptionally well is Christopher Plummer’s powerful performance as the film’s ersatz Scrooge. Plummer is, of course, one of those actors who appears to be virtually incapable of giving a subpar performance, but his work in this film is particularly strong. Even though Scrooge is a role that seems tailor-made for exaggeration, Plummer chooses to take a quieter and more delicate approach that stands in stark contrast to the rest of the film, and is therefore all the more effective as a result. He is acerbically funny in his interactions with his creator, but he also manages to inject a few genuine moments of pathos into the proceedings, which is particularly impressive given that he is portraying an overtly fictional character in the first place. You know, I’d like to take a step back from what I said earlier and say that if someone were inspired by this film to cast Plummer in a traditional adaptation of “A Christmas Carol,” I’d be interested in seeing it. To tide us over until then, we’ll have to make do with his brief appearance on this page, which stands out like a delicious sugar plum in the middle of a stale cake on the other hand.
For more personality quizzes check this: All Saints Quiz.
