Written by: Kevin Berge
This movie promises that the main character is stuck reliving only Christmas every year, but... he's clearly stuck in Christmas EVE. (Image Courtesy of: netflix.com)
Quick Take: Just Another Christmas (Tudo Bem No Natal Que Vem) has the spirit and heart of a true Christmas story as its main character goes from hating to loving the holiday. It is a little disjointed and very corny, but its heart feels perfectly suited for regular viewing during the holiday season.
***This review will not contain spoilers beyond the basic set-up of the story, but if you want to go in completely blind, you should not read past this point.***
Jorge (Leandro Hassum) hates Christmas. He was born on Christmas Eve and felt constantly like his own life was overshadowed by the holiday. Even though his wife Laura (Elisa Pinheiro) tries to show him he is loved, he cannot get over his obsessive hatred of the holiday.
That is until he finds himself trapped in loop where he only wakes up once a year on Christmas Eve while the rest of the world goes on past him. Jorge must come to terms with who he is and what his family means to him as he loses years in seconds.
Just Another Christmas is a fresh take on the Groundhog Day/time loop genre where there are real stakes at the end. Jorge's life quickly falls apart as a colder version of himself, missing Christmas Eve every year, nearly destroys his family.
This movie is far darker than it lets on, and there is always a moment of hesitation on whether anything can truly be fixed. At every step, it feels like everything is only getting worse, and the film has some interesting ideas about who we are as we grow old.
Jorge is a complex character, who the audience only gets to see in snippets. Leandro Hassum (Til Luck Do Us Part) carries the comedic and dramatic weight of this film through his performance, mostly selling an imperfect man trying to make up for his own folly.
His arrogance turning to pain and grief is an emotional arc unlike one would expect of the typical Christmas movie. Some of it is overly corny, but when the movie hits, it sells the emotional weight of a movie hitting far above its weight class.
Jorge (Leandro Hassum) hates Christmas. He was born on Christmas Eve and felt constantly like his own life was overshadowed by the holiday. Even though his wife Laura (Elisa Pinheiro) tries to show him he is loved, he cannot get over his obsessive hatred of the holiday.
That is until he finds himself trapped in loop where he only wakes up once a year on Christmas Eve while the rest of the world goes on past him. Jorge must come to terms with who he is and what his family means to him as he loses years in seconds.
Just Another Christmas is a fresh take on the Groundhog Day/time loop genre where there are real stakes at the end. Jorge's life quickly falls apart as a colder version of himself, missing Christmas Eve every year, nearly destroys his family.
This movie is far darker than it lets on, and there is always a moment of hesitation on whether anything can truly be fixed. At every step, it feels like everything is only getting worse, and the film has some interesting ideas about who we are as we grow old.
Jorge is a complex character, who the audience only gets to see in snippets. Leandro Hassum (Til Luck Do Us Part) carries the comedic and dramatic weight of this film through his performance, mostly selling an imperfect man trying to make up for his own folly.
His arrogance turning to pain and grief is an emotional arc unlike one would expect of the typical Christmas movie. Some of it is overly corny, but when the movie hits, it sells the emotional weight of a movie hitting far above its weight class.
In the end, most of this family are still kind of the worst. (Image Courtesy of: decider.com)
This movie mainly suffers for its inconsistency. It flies from year to year, uncertain where to slow down. Its comedy goes so over the top that the actual grounded scene can come out of nowhere.
It is a funny movie but in a slapstick manner that can easily fall flat scene to scene. The acting is solid but unspectacular, even with the best work from Hassum and Elisa Pinheiro (Under Pressure).
With my personal limited experience with Portugese-language films, it's hard to get over this feeling that this film may feel more unique because of its language barrier despite being mostly just a solid holiday romcom. In English, this movie may have ended up feeling flat (originally in English not in a terrible dub form).
The whole movie is about teaching the main character the value of Christmas and its importance to his family. It works. Jorge is clearly a changed man over the course of the story, and the stakes make it feel like an earned evolution.
The drama is earned and not overdone. There is not one generic overarching villain unless you consider Jorge himself to be the protagonist and the antagonist. While Jorge is not a great person for much of the film though, he's not the antagonist. He is merely a bad person slowly coming to terms with himself and growing.
At its core, this is an inconsistent but heartwarming experience. The storytelling is just strong enough to carry the film forward in a way that ultimately is built on the back of its setting. This is a Christmas movie through and through and works best on that level.
It is a funny movie but in a slapstick manner that can easily fall flat scene to scene. The acting is solid but unspectacular, even with the best work from Hassum and Elisa Pinheiro (Under Pressure).
With my personal limited experience with Portugese-language films, it's hard to get over this feeling that this film may feel more unique because of its language barrier despite being mostly just a solid holiday romcom. In English, this movie may have ended up feeling flat (originally in English not in a terrible dub form).
The whole movie is about teaching the main character the value of Christmas and its importance to his family. It works. Jorge is clearly a changed man over the course of the story, and the stakes make it feel like an earned evolution.
The drama is earned and not overdone. There is not one generic overarching villain unless you consider Jorge himself to be the protagonist and the antagonist. While Jorge is not a great person for much of the film though, he's not the antagonist. He is merely a bad person slowly coming to terms with himself and growing.
At its core, this is an inconsistent but heartwarming experience. The storytelling is just strong enough to carry the film forward in a way that ultimately is built on the back of its setting. This is a Christmas movie through and through and works best on that level.
