veluhomme

I was looking forward to a film exploring the difficulties that long term couples, in this case a gay couple, can face. That the film is described as a comedy/drama really excited me.... Because there's nothing like having a little humour when discussing difficult subjects - like couples growing apart. Especially when there's a newly retired partner trying to find purpose in life after retirement!

Unfortunately the couple's relationship comes across as remarkably dysfunctional - certainly not a relationship which would have appeared to be a mutually loving one lasting years and years. Any humour was quickly lost among the nastiness and desperate behaviours between the couple.

The acting and filming was well done.

However, if the movie was created to explore difficulties between couples as they age, I felt that the script for the characters were not well done. The dynamics between the couple left me feeling that it was a marriage from hell - so why save it?

As a lover of 'off beat' Christmas movies (think ''The Nightmare Before Christmas', or Terry Pratchett's Hogsfather) I really looked forward to watching 'The Night before Christmas in Wonderland'!

Sadly while watching it I ended up thinking ''Meh."

I found the music tiring to listen to, with nothing really clever in the lyrics (no, I don't expect Shakespeare in a Christmas film!). Combining these predictable lyrics with the uninspired musical scores, all I wanted to do was fast forward till the songs were over.

The colours used to create scenes were beautiful, and many of the static scenes were lovely to look at. And trying to make the animation look painfully hand created is difficult to do, yet the creators did a good job in meeting that goal. But somehow I couldn't help but think that, in the end, the actual 'movement' of the characters in the film looked just too 'basic', or static - which detracted from the vivid imagery.

I really wanted to like this film! Unfortunately, in the end it just felt flat and uninspired. Certainly not repeatable to look at next year, or any year after that when the Christmas season rolls around again.

The choreography is excellent and complicated. The dialogue/songs are raunchy, irreverent, fun, and often hit the spot re: traditions and how they can sometimes make people miserable at Christmas. There's no preaching nor finger pointing saying that keeping traditions is bad. It's just a fun way to remind people to enjoy the moment and not get wrapped up in feeling like they 'have' to do things just because it's ALWAYS been done - even if they don't want to do it any more. (tradition!).

Lest this sound like a depressing and preachy film, it absolutely isn't! It's simply fun and, even better, it's got a happy ending! Great Christmas film to watch early in the season!