L'homme qui inventa Noël

For me this is how you do a good biopic. Stay faithful to what happened but at the same time be creative with the way you tell the story. This is a mix of fairy tale and history, which is the exact formula needed to tell the story of the creation of A Christmas Carroll. The book is such an iconic piece of literature that helped reshape the way people in England saw Christmas, and the movie shows very well how that happened. The cast is good, headlined by the excellent Christopher Plummer playing a wonderful Scrooge. Good period recreation and well directed, this movie has little faults. For it to be a crowd-pleaser while also historically accurate is not an easy task and if I can find any flaw is that it plays a little too safe. Nevertheless, well done.

This is a wonderful film and will be especially delightful for people familiar with "A Christmas Carol" and with Dickens in general, but you don't need any background to enjoy it. Basically the film tells the story of how Dickens came to write this classic. The writer's process imagined in this film is true to life for many of us who are writers, though it isn't the only way from pen to paper.

Great acting, good sets, and great music with an excellent script help make this a new classic. The only deficit I saw was the less than opulent sets, which is why I gave it a 9 instead of a 10.

The special gift in this film is seeing Christopher Plummer back on the big screen. Jonathan Price also stands out as Dicken's father.

Go see this film. Go see it especially at the Xmas season.

I was all set to dislike this. The title is so pompous that it's bound to fail. The thing is that there is enough factual biographical material to float the boat. Most of the major events did take place. What makes this work is the incorporation of characters from "A Christmas Carol" who play a role in his creative process. Christoper Plummer is excellent as the incarnation of Ebenezer Scrooge. Obviously, these are in the mind of the great writer and portrayed in a corporeal form in the movie. We see Dickens as a flawed man who overspends and over reacts. It is a fun film to look at as eighteenth century England is front and center. It was also neat to see some interesting angles relating to the book.

"The Man Who Invented Christmas" is a fictional biographical look at famed English author, Charles Dickens, and the circumstances of his life and time that led to the writing and publication of "A Christmas Carol." The full title by Dickens then was "A Christmas Carol in Prose: Being a Ghost-story of Christmas." Dickens first published it himself in 1843, after a falling out with his regular publishers.

From start to scratch, it took Dickens just six weeks to give the world what would become one of the great classic stories of all time. At least, that's the premise of the film, which itself is based on a 2011 novel of the same title by Les Standiford. The book's subtitle explains a little more, lest there be any confusion regarding the much older Christmas origins of St. Nicholas and of the birth of Jesus. It's about "How Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol Rescued His Career and Revived Our Holiday Spirits."

According to some reviews, Standiford did considerable research for his book. The background on Dickens's family, his writing to that time, and his precarious financial situation then is likely in public records. Still, much of that part of the story is interesting and probably not that well known by most people, including fans of Dickens books. The very colorful segments of imagination in this movie are another matter. How much of that may have been able to be traced to notes by Dickens himself, or to other sources, is uncertain. But, this serves as a very good technique for the author, and the filmmakers, to get across to a non-writing public how a great story teller may come to the plots and characters of a book he or she will write. After all, who can't remember a time as a child when one's thoughts roamed freely into a world of make-believe?

So, what we would come to call day-dreaming, is a very likely and real way that Dickens, and some other authors like him (surely, the great story-tellers, at least) would have thought up and developed their plots and characters. And, the interplay of the hero's daydreams here, with constant interruptions from family and friends, helps one understand the frustrations and difficulties Dickens had as he hurried to get out a Christmas book in time - something his publishers deemed would not fly. Of course, everyone knows the outcome, but this story is well done, and the film is very good.

The acting is mostly superb throughout "The Man Who Invented Christmas." Dan Stevens gives believable life to the character of Dickens. He even looks very much like Dickens from a portrait of the author around that age - 31. Justin Edwards is very good in the role of Dickens's friend, John Forster. Forster was himself a writer, and it was his 1872-74 biography of Charles Dickens that is the best and most authoritative source on Dickens. Moryfdd Clark plays Dickens's wife Kate, and Jonathan Pryce plays Charles's father, John Dickens. Christopher Plummer plays the character of Scrooge in Dickens's daydreams. That and some other small parts lend some humor to the story.

There are some small deviations in the script from the real background in Dickens's life. For instance, it implies that he didn't like reporting or journalism work and calls it names. In real life, he was a reporter, general writer and editor of newspapers and magazines. One interesting thing to note is that this film was shot entirely in Ireland. The cast is mostly made up of English and Irish actors, with an occasional Italian or French actor here or there. And, while they aren't mentioned in the movie, the three "flops" alluded to, for which Dickens was now in dire straits, would be: "Nicholas Nickleby" of 1838-39, "The Old Curiosity Shop" of 1840, and "Barnaby Rudge" of 1841. Of course, all have been published since then, and none are considered flops.

"A Christmas Carol" must top any serious list of Christmas movies, and there are a number of variations with prominent actors playing the different roles over the ages. This film, about the author and origin of the classic novella, is a very good and most enjoyable story to add to one's Christmas collection. An ideal family situation at yuletide might be to show this film first and then watch the favorite (or two) renditions of "A Christmas Carol" movie.

Of all the many versions of "A Christmas Carol" being made yet well into the 21st century, I don't think any can compare to the best films of the mid-20th century. At the top of my list is the 1951 film that stars Alastair Sim. Close behind that is the 1938 film that stars Reginald Owen and Gene Lockhart. The best TV film made so far, is that of 1984 that stars George C. Scott. And, for those among younger audiences who can't stand black and white films, the 1951 classic with Alastair Sim has a colorized version.

But, whatever version or film of the Dickens classic one watches, it's sure to help take the humbug out of the Christmas season as it did in England on that Christmas of the mid-1800s.

Here are some favorite lines from this film.

Elizabeth Dickens, "No one is useless in this world..." Charles Dickens, "...who lightens the burden of another - I know." Elizabeth, "For all his faults, you won't find a kinder man." Charles, "Hmmm. How long he is growing up to be one."

Mr. John Dickens, "We must not disturb the poet when the divine frenzy is upon him."

Charles Dickens, "Oh, skittle shins to Mrs. Fisk."

Mr. John Dickens, stepping off the train in London, "Ah! Nothing like the air of the metropolis to put color in your cheeks, eh, mother?"

Mr. John Dickens, "Procrastination is the thief of time, eh Charles?"

This was my favorite Christmas movie of 2018. That said, you can watch this movie any time of year because it's not really solely a Christmas movie. It's about Charles Dickens trying to write and get "A Christmas Carol" published. So most of the story actually takes place in the fall as he struggles with writers block. It's more an inspiring story about a creative person struggling to accomplish something worthwhile, and because of the elements of the story he's writing, it has Christmas elements now. Save it for Christmas 2019, or watch it now. But just watch it!!!