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Thanks to its restoration, this film - which was viewed on Amazon Prime Video - looks and sounds absolutely splendid, with colors that truly pop and sparkle, and colors there are, thanks to non-stop glorious costumes. A fairy tale that relates the story of two jealous sisters and their machinations to usurp their youngest sister's life when the Tsar chooses her and not them to be his bride, it's essentially a children's film but there's much to capture the attention of adults, too. I wish I knew Russian so I could fully catch the nuances of the dialogue - keeping with its fairy-tale beginnings, it's all told in verse - but thankfully the captioning is quite good at keeping everything flowing (though, of course, the only time there are NO subtitles to be found is occasionally during the opening credits, when so many names and titles are presented in their Cryllic spelling that it's understandable no system could keep up with it all!), and the tale itself is at once both charming and charmingly bizarre but it is always, always utterly enjoyable to watch. The performances add to the high quality, as they are spot-on, at once cartoonish enough but also eliciting genuine pathos at times, as does any good fairy tale. The sad thing to realize is that, at least for American children, it's hard to picture them having the patience for a film like this as it doesn't have any animated characters, animals that sing, hacky movie stars doing voice work, non-stop CGI, a media onslaught, and tie-in toy lines, but for any child or teenager who appreciates this kind of old-fashioned filmmaking, it's a real treat.

Originally conceived - and filmed - as a kinda-sorta musical (featuring songs written by Carole King - who even performs a number on-screen at one point, Sinead O'Connor, and Prince, no less), what made it to theatres was a serio-comic tale of an actor (Nolte) struggling to survive the business of show while dealing with a new life with his young daughter. Continuing the tradition of films-about-filmmaking being flops, this one, too, did pitiful numbers in cinemas. Over the course of 30 years some cult-movie lovers (like me!) have wondered if having the musical guts of the film excised did more harm than good, despite the overwhelming negative word-of-mouth in its preview screenings (the reason for it's songs being excised). Thanks to a friend listening to a favorite podcast, he was able to watch (and send!) a workprint of this movie as it was intended to be seen: musical numbers intact. And, well, what was once just a dull, phony-baloney, humorless film is proven to be an out-and-out, jaw-dropping mistake of epic proportions! First of all, the songs are not many, so it was, as I already suggested, a kinda-sorta-musical, and, as with many modern musicals, the actors on screen are not known for their singing abilities, so you're treated to folks like Albert Brooks croaking out the title tune and a moppet playing Nick Nolte's kid squeaking out of tune. This is one of those stories where no one behaves in a manner that might suggest real life but the audience is expected to, if not laugh out loud, grin mightily and often. Good luck with that! NO ONE - with the exception of the always-reliable Julie Kavner - escapes this dreck unscathed! Every performance is of the career-worst variety: Albert Brooks is at his smarmiest. Nick Nolte is charmless and forced. Joely Richardson spends so much energy affecting a generic 'American" accent that she apparently spent anything else on the acting. Whitni Wright, as Nolte's kid, comes across as so cloying that you wish Joan Crawford would take her in hand. She is positively cringe-worthy, giving one of THE very worst child-actor performances ever captured on screen. As for the music, what was sliced out of the release, it lives up to the notoriety and proves that for once preview audiences were spot-on! To get the idea of what seeing this is like, Google the unforgettable "Cop Rock", the notorious musical police procedural which instantly made - and still makes! - endless 'Worst Ever' lists of TV shows. As with that misgotten car wreck, you'll actually find yourself slack-jawed at the audacity and wrongheadedness of it all, cringing at the terrible songwriting and execrable vocals, all delivered earnestly, with everyone seemingly oblivious to the awfulness on display. The studio spent $40 million on this. FORTY MILLION on...THIS! Wow.

Living in central New York State, this is a bit of a big deal in these parts, as this alleged comedy was filmed here, but "The Christmas Letter" - written by a native of Ilion, NY, is completely and utterly bereft of both charm and laughs, filled to overflowing with terrible dialogue, acting that's amateurish at best (check out the hilariously rotten British accents!) and overstuffed with deeply unlikable characters - is an out-and-out disaster. Naturally, its story apes nearly every sitcom trope, starting with the buffoonish husband married to the sensible wife, and is at all times predictable, hitting every note you've come to expect from tales like this. The tone strives mightily for the magical realism of such holiday films as 'A Christmas Story' and 'Home Alone' but succeeds only in coming across as a Disney Channel reject. Adding insult to injury, its "big stars" - Randy Quaid, comedian Brian Posehn, character actor Brian Doyle Murray, and an ancient Chevy Chase - are but minor supporting roles, leaving the heavy lifting to its main cast of actors who seem flown in direct from a community theatre, with the only notable aspect of the lead being his fascinatingly terrible toupee. This is, of course, a tale in which someone is meant to learn An Important Message About The True Meaning Of Christmas but ultimately for the viewer the only message YOU will learn is to be careful about opening this particular present.