A father and son must work together to save Christmas when Santa Claus had crashed his sleigh on a test run and was sleeping in the garage. When he is arrested it is feared that children will be waking up on Christmas morning with no presents.
Steve had spent two years in prison and was released just in time for Christmas he was therefore going to spend some time with his son Tom and rekindle the relationship he had broken by doing the crime. I actually thought that the introduction of Santa works very well in this one as he receives a letter from Tom asking for his father to be more reliable as his Christmas present.
This had sparked Santa played by the ever incredible Jim Broadbent to end up in England and then prison. I really feel like I must mention how good he is as Santa which is such a shame that we don't get more and more of him in that role! It is very amusing to see what would happen if he was put in prison? I absolutely loved it when he was playing the hard man and his hair/beard had been changed that was hilarious.
Along with all of that it is trying a lot to get the Christmas spirit back for so many of the characters, Tom being the child wanting them all to believe that this man really is Santa. Something that is not really shared by the adults, so that part gives a feel of a Miracle on 34th Street when the court case and everything happens to that Santa.
The rest of the cast was pretty good as well as Broadbent, Rafe Spall gave a good leading performance along with Jodie Whittaker in a smaller role as Tom's mother. Such a shame she wasn't given more screen time as she always puts in such good performances. If you want a catch a recent British Christmas film then this one is currently on Sky Cinema and is worth watching (that cannot be said about many Christmas Comedy films in all honesty). I was pleasantly surprised with this one and pretty sure I attempted to watch it last year, but didn't get to finish it.
Maybe we should be more open to slightly different takes on Christmas stories and more films like this one will appear, as this is certainly a hidden gem as I don't imagine it has had huge amount of viewers since its release in 2014. Jim Broadbent is Santa go on I know that is more than enough reason for you to find and watch this film during the festive period this year!
