Review: That Christmas isn't that good, but it's also not that bad

  Netflix is coming a regular stop for animated Christmas movies. In 2019, the gorgeous Klaus won critical acclaim and even scored an Oscar nomination. In 2022, Scrooge: A Christmas Carol put a nice spin on a story that's been told many times before (and will be told many times again). Now, the streamer is back with That Christmas, the second feature from Locksmith Animation (their previous film was the very fun Ron's Gone Wrong).

I'm going to attempt to review That Christmas quickly because I can already feel it fading from my memory. It's by no means a bad movie, but it's one of those perfectly pleasant holiday romps that does its due diligence without ever really sparkling. There's honestly nothing that causes much offense here. But there's nothing particularly special, either. No harm, no foul.

Adapted from some stories by Richard Curtis of Love, Actually fame (that classic pops up a couple times here as a fun Easter Christmas egg) by Curtis and Peter Souter, and helmed by Simon Otto, That Christmas focuses on the small town of Wellington-on-Sea on the Suffolk Coast in England. Said town is being battered by a horrendous winter storm, one that almost feels like it's angry at the town and has a personal vendetta against it, so pointedly focused is its wrath.

After a brief introduction to Santa Claus (voiced by Brian Cox in a really fun turn, and one that's so different than his work in The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim), we zip back in time to a few days before Christmas, where we're introduced to our three main characters. There's new kid Danny, who after six months in town still feels invisible. His mom works a lot. His dad is away, always supposedly on the verge of coming home. He has a crush on shy Sam, whose identical twin Charlie is anything but. Charlie is always up to some scheme, the naughty to Sam's buttoned-up nice. And then there's brash Bernadette, whom we're told is a rebel, though that isn't particularly bourn out in the film's story.

Each of these characters has their own little story -- Danny bonding with Miss Trapper (Fiona Shaw), the teacher who scares everyone in town, including the adults. Sam bears witness to Charlie's various schemes and pranks, and comes to understand that sometimes naughtiness can be nice. And Bernadette is in charge of a whole bunch of kids while all of their parents attend a wedding, leading to a very rambunctious Christmas when the storm strands the parents some ways from town.

It's all good-natured and sweet, but at pretty much every turn, it feels like something is missing. When I watch Christmas stuff, I love the moment when my heart starts to swell, and I can feel the dam in my tear ducts starting to strain. Something about the genre (if it can even be called a genre) makes me so weepy, so easily. But here, I never got close. Miss Trapper has a bit of a tragic backstory, but it's presented so clunkily that it barely even registered as emotional. And the tingly-warm Christmas-ness just isn't there. It never shows up.

And the stories, as you might have already noticed, aren't that exciting. There's not much drama, very low stakes. Sometimes, that can work. Love, Actually is a pretty good example of that. Most of the stories there are pretty small. But taken all together, bit by bit, there are a lot of beautiful and moving moments. It certainly helps that in that movie, there are so many stories, and they intersect a bit more. Here, we're only really focusing on these three stories, which bump up against each other but don't really coalesce until the whole town joins in on a hunt for a missing person. It's a limp tapestry, threadbare.

I do like how Santa is presented here. He's a bit bumbly, but very prepared. Instead of having all of the presents ready to go, he reads the field (and his list) as he visits each house, figuring out the exact right combination of gifts to leave each kid. He's adaptable, clever, and has fun rapport with his trusty reindeer Dasher, who's ready to go home. Their landing in town is the film's most exciting scene, very dynamic and fun. It feels like a refreshing break from the more mundane proceedings surrounding it.

It also doesn't help that the animation is a bit bland, (Christmas?) cookie-cutter. The characters are all very smooth, round, like they haven't quite finished baking. Luckily, the cast brings them to life wonderfully. Aside from the starrier adult voice cast, all of the kids are really fun to listen to, as well. I especially loved the awkward, bumbling steps toward love Danny and Sam take when they meet outside Sam's family's store.

Christmas movies can, I think, be graded on something of a curve. How good do they need to be to get the job done? At most, they'll probably be watched once a year. Most won't even get that (I've still only seen Klaus one time, and that one was quite good!). As a pleasant way to pass ninety minutes, one that's good for the whole family, That Christmas accomplishes its mission. There's a nice song by Ed Sheeran midway through, some fun humor, lovely British accents. Who could ask for more? Anybody, myself included. But it's a sweet little thing all the same.