A Sudden Case of Christmas

This movie reminds me of "Mixed Nuts," which for me is not a good thing. This movie is all over the place. So many plot lines start and don't follow through, the agendas of the characters get lost throughout the movie, the poster looks like a Christmas movie, which it's not. There's a lot of adults cheating on each other, so it's not a family movie. Just weird. I'd skip it. The only good thing about the movie is the landscape shots of Italy. I couldn't wait for the movie to end. Also, this isn't a comedy. There's nothing funny about it. It's definitely a lame drama. That was my first and last watch.

I'm giving this sweet film 9 stars mostly for the great Acting and beautiful setting. The story doesn't seem too unrealistic like some Hollywood movie plots tend to lean - that turns me off as a viewer since I prefer realistic and relatable story lines. I came for a Christmas movie, which it isn't really, its about family and forgiveness. The young actress playing Claire is outstanding! Danny is also fabulous, as is the entire cast. I definitely recommend this film is you like a cozy little story. It has a little comedy, a little romance, a little culture, and a little suspense - something for everyone.

This Christmas comedy from Peter Chelsom is a remake of the 2022 Italian film Improvvisamente Natale.

Abbie (Lucy DeVito) and Jacob (Wilmer Valderrama) are a couple on the brink of separation. They take their daughter Claire to her grandfather's Lawrence (Danny DeVito) hotel in the Italian mountains in August.

Only Claire senses what is about to happen and wants to celebrate Christmas in August. Lawrence and his loyal employee Otto go about making sure they have one last family Christmas.

They are joined by Jacob's parents who are also facing a marital crisis.

Peter Chelsom once had a promising directing career in small scale British movies such as Hear My Song and Funny Bones. It all grinded to a halt with the disastrous Warren Beatty film Town and Country in 2001.

He has never got his mojo back. Even though this is a remake, A Sudden Case of Christmas is a poor film that wastes Danny Devito. Not really Christmassy, not aimed at a family audience and not funny.

Where to start with this. The characters are just odd.... And their lives are boring. That's basically the 2 major issues here.

The movie is just boring.

About half way through I catch myself wondering about the running time. That's when you know you have a problem when your thoughts turn to "when is this over."

Eventually I was so disinterested I just played video games with it running in another monitor hoping it gets better.. And eventually it just got obnoxious to the level I just had to turn it off.

If I had to say anything good about it. They all played their parts well (poorly written as it was). So there was that I guess.

Apply performed by all. It's just. People don't act like that. It's like the author had never seen a human before. And at some point I can see even the storyteller must have caught on because they appear to add quirky characters to fill in a lack luster story.

But their so poorly written themselves that it only makes it worse.

2 stars for Danny Devito.. Sorry that's all I have to give.

The whole theme is great, and it sort of hit me because I felt similar as Claire when I was 7, last of the "classic" family christmas I had with the whole family, after which my mom took me away and christmas, my favorite time of the year, was never the same, so yeah, I felt the beginning... BUT...

The characters lack consistency, the writing is abysmal, and the only actors that are actually believable are Danny, ofc, and Claire, the rest feel off, and as I said there is no consistency

The character development is done so badly, they literally don't know how to write it, and some actions the characters randomly take are just dumb or out of the blue, there is no build up to some of the decisions.