A Sunburnt Christmas

A refreshing and raucous take on the traditional Hallmark Christmas movie. Aussie through and through! Thanks Stan for a quality offering!

And an alternative new year, then join me and everybody else that enjoyed this peculliar and maybe to some a really different x-mas movie, where the sun is on its highest at the northern side of the compass, and where the vortexes usually churns the wrong way, a film that made me smile and laugh, where phil collins of the genesis has found his spittin image to do his biographical drama when he takes a pass by on the road to the city called alice, and where the children actors must be a joy to the world and to the adult actors, because their plain and simple marvelous.

so if you wanna have an outback christmas, with a paid vouleteerin outback santa sharing love and joy by spreading rain over henrietta or whatever the name of the homestead was, wher the kids are darling buds of naivity, the coming of age daughter the govner cause the mum is completely crazy then have a look at ''a sunburnt christmass''. its a recommend from the grumpy old man thinking that this might be a classic to the x-mas nerds

Think of all the great Christmas movies you have seen. Now relocate them to Australia (where it is Summer), sprinkle on some Australian humour, and add a just a dash of Christmas cliché. What you then have is a Christmas movie like no other - a guaranteed future classic. Welcome to history, A Sunburnt Christmas!

The Raley's, wily 15-year-old Hazel (Tatiana Goode), along with and her siblings, the fearless Daisy (Lena Nankivell) and hypochondriac Tom (Eadan McGuinness) are keeping things together as best they can since the death of their father. When a strange man dressed as Santa (Henshall) crashes a car full of Christmas toys into their shed, turning Christmas and their entire lives upside down in ways that could never have been imagined....

Without giving too much away, what ensues next has all the Christmas trademarks - it is funny, sweet and a touch sad.

I understand the M rating, the film does contain religious references, mild language use, some contentious issues (mostly around Santa potentially being blown up, his powers and his existence, as well as the subtext of suicide). It also has a shotgun toting 6-year-old! However, with no sex scenes, toilet talk or other inappropriate scenes or themes - you decide. This film is boldly fresh with the topics and references seamlessly and often humourlessly integrated.

If you loved watching Elf, Home Alone or Die Hard, you will love A Sunburnt Christmas.

Thank you @StanAustralia, @ScreenAustralia and director @ChristiaanVanVuuren, as well as the entire cast and crew for making such a standout Christmas movie!

What a great film, puts a smile on your face.

Some great acting, well rounded film for all ages.

Give it a watch.

I loved it. It is a fun, warm and entertaining movie. It is also a bit different than your standard, typical Christmas movie, which is great. At times, I found myself laughing out loud and even shed a tear or two towards the end. The story centers around a family struggling with drought on their outback farm. As Christmas day approaches, things are upended and start to change when a runaway criminal, dressed as Santa Claus, crashes his stolen Ute into their shed. The children end up helping Santa (played by Daniel Henshall, he is great, by the way) find his 'sack' of toys (aka his bag of cash) during which he starts connecting and bonding with the family. The writers and director have done a great job developing the characters in this film. You got to love Daisy (played by Lena Nankivell), the little girl with the shotgun; Tom (played by Eaden McGuinness), the boy in the getup to protect him from the pandemic, climate change, and all other dangers; Hazel (played by Tatiana Goode), the glue that holds the family together; the single mum (played by Ling Cooper Tang) who is dealing with the loss of her husband thru an obsession with (beating) the drought on the farm, and their sheep (you gotta love the sheep). The characters, including Santa, are quirky and fun to watch on screen. I found myself quickly taken in by them and the story more broadly. The dialogue too is fun, and at times, heartfelt. There is also a twist to the story, and we even get a 'Home Alone' scene towards the end. What makes all this work on screen is, of course, the acting. Overall, the acting is outstanding. As noted above, Henshall's performance (who's character is at the heart of the story) was strong. He did a great job threading the line between a criminal looking for his cash and a man getting to know and bonding with the family. Plus, he was fun to watch on screen. The children too had fun and cute performances. What stood out to me on screen was the performance of Tatiana Goode as Hazel. She had a very convincing performance (easy to connect to, I thought). She is a very talented actor. I was also surprised, at the end of the film, when I realized that the mobster Dingo was played by Sullivan Stapleton. Did anyone else not recognize him? I watched every episode of Blindspot. So, I was a bit surprised that I did not know it was him until the end. All in all, this is an excellent Christmas movie. Something different to leave under the Australian Christmas tree this season.