Stubs - The Man Who Invented Christmas

The Man Who Invented Christmas (2017) Starring: Dan Stevens, Christopher Plummer, Jonathan Pryce Directed by Bharat Nalluri. Screenplay by Susan Coyne (Based on The Man Who Invented Christmas by Les Standiford). Produced by Robert Mickelson, Ian Sharples, Paula Mazur, Mitchell Kaplan, Andrew Karpen, Vadim Jean Color Run Time: 104 minutes Ireland/Canada Biography, Drama, Christmas

One of the most adapted novels is A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. We have previously reviewed several of these adaptations: Scrooge (1938), A Christmas Carol (1938), A Christmas Carol (1951), Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol (1962), and A Christmas Carol (1984), which is certainly not a complete list. This is a novel that has had a great influence, not only on society but on the Christmas holiday as well. If you say “Merry Christmas” you may not realize it but that’s from this novel.

The Man Who Invented Christmas is a look into how this book came to be, as well as the writing of the novel, which took only 16 days. No doubt anyone who has participated in NaNoWriMo would wish their 30 days would result in such a memorable classic.

When he wrote A Christmas Carol in 1843, Dickens was already an accomplished writer, having already published The Pickwick Papers (1837) and Oliver Twist (1839), the latter of which he had even toured the U.S. a la David Sedaris. It was quite a show to see the writer read from one of his manuscripts and it is here that the story starts. Dickens (Dan Stevens) is in America longing to go home.

But back at home, Dickens hits a dry spell, with three books, Barnaby Rudge (1841), Master Humphrey’s Clock (1841) and American Notes (1842), all of which were considered flops at the time.

Charles Dickens (Dan Stevens) and his wife Katie (Morfydd Clark).

Dickens was a man with expenses. Married to Kate (Morfydd Clark) and they have four children, going on five (they would eventually have 10). There is a house with staff to support, as well as his mother (Ger Ryan) and father, John (Jonathon Pryce), with whom he is estranged but who nonetheless show up to stay in his London house.

Charles' parents, mother (Ger Ryan) and father John (Jonathon Pryce).

Fearing that he may have run out of ideas, Dickens relies on the help of his friend John Forster (Justin Edwards), who is sympathetic but doesn’t really understand him. When they go to his publishers, Chapman (Ian McNeice) and Hall (David McSavage), they are unsympathetic and unimpressed with his idea for a Christmas story. With only weeks before the book would have to be out, Dickens decides to go it alone and self-publish. (In reality, Dickens would pay for everything but Chapman and Hall would actually still publish the book.)

Dickens and his illustrator, John Leach (Simon Callow).

He sends Forster to find and hire an illustrator, John Leech (Simon Callow), even before he’s written a word on the page. Their confrontations over the look of the illustrations lead to Leech trying to quit the project, but it is Dickens who convinces him to stay and to use Forster for one of his models (The Ghost of Christmas Present).

Scrooge (Christopher Plummer) becomes a real presence in Charles' life.

Most of the film, though, deals with the writing of the book and the influences from real life that find their way onto the pages of the handwritten manuscript. We see Dickens working through his writing process, needing to come up with the names of his characters before he can work with them. Dickens not only lives with his work but he lives with the characters. Scrooge (Christopher Plummer) becomes a real presence in Dickens’ life as they work together, so to speak, to write the novella.

Dickens relies on his own impoverished youth for inspiration, having spent many years working in a blacking factory when his father could no longer afford his school fees and eventually went off to debtor’s prison. These were horrible times for the young Dickens (Ely Solan), with hard work, toxic fumes and bullying at the hands of his co-workers.

Nanny to his children, Tara (Anna Murphy) influences the writing of the book.

Tara (Anna Murphy), a young Irish lass, who is the nanny to the children, influences him not only with the ghost story angle (drawing from an Irish folktale he overheard her telling the children) but also, we’re led to believe, for the Ghost of Christmas Past.

As any writer knows, just because you’re writing doesn’t mean that people will leave you alone. Even Dickens is interrupted constantly during these days, with anything from meals to his father’s drunken return one night. He is also called out of bed when inspirations, in the human form of Scrooge, beckons him from his sleep. Working all hours of the night is one of Dickens’ traits as well.

While he's still writing it, Dickens (with Scrooge by his side) reads an ad for it in a book shop's window.

We watch as he writes each Stave of the book not really knowing where the next stave will lead until he starts to write it. We’re also led to believe that the fate of Tiny Tim wasn’t really a given from the get-go and it took Tara’s reaction to an early reading that led him to show the change in Scrooge from a miserly man to someone who lives every day with the spirit of Christmas in his heart. Dickens is shown to be more of a pantser sort of writer, letting the characters dictate where the story goes.

In the end, Dickens manages to finish the last stave but is almost too late in delivering it to the publisher, who initially makes no promises that it will be out in time.

However, we know that it does and is a huge success, though initially, Dickens made much less off the initial release than he intended. The book, though, has never been out of print since, so one would have to imagine Dickens did all-right for himself after taking a risk.

The book would have an effect on society, with charitable giving becoming something synonymous with Christmas. While he didn’t invent the phrase “Merry Christmas”, the book popularized its use in Victorian Times and to this day. Terms like “Bah! Humbug!” and the use of Scrooge to mean a miser all come back to this book.

At the time of its publication, Christmas had lost a lot of its glamour in Victorian England, which was going through its own urbanization and industrialization. The book brought back the idea of festivity around the holiday and showed that it can be celebrated in towns and cities, despite increasing modernization.

Charles Dickens (l) and Dan Stevens (r), who plays him in the movie.

Dan Stevens does a very good job as Charles Dickens, who is thankfully portrayed without the unwieldy beards that the writer is oft remembered as wearing. A more youthful-looking Dickens makes him more appealing and easier to watch. Any writer can sympathize with the author working under a deadline and having to deal with continual interruptions that can derail his writing. It sort of goes with the territory. I, myself, have been interrupted three or four times while writing this review, and I’m doing it in one sitting.

Christopher Plummer always brings his A-game and does so here as Scrooge. He not only brings the literary figure to life and serves as a bit of a muse for Dickens, but almost makes the character, outside of the story, likable, which is a hard feat, considering his 150+ years of bad press.

Jonathan Pryce, Justin Edwards, and Simon Callow all do well here in reduced, secondary roles. Pryce makes the father a three-dimensional character who is both fun-loving and irresponsible. Edwards is good as Dickens's friend and confessor. Callow, who has very little screen time, seems too big for the role but still gives his character life based on the actor’s status.

Acting is only as good as the writing and directing, so both Susan Coyne and Bharat Nalluri deserve credit. It is too bad that the film did not find its audience when it was first released in November 2017.

The film reminds me a little of Amadeus, the Mozart biography, in that it depicts the process of creation. Whether or not it is true in fact, it is true in spirit and it is nice to see the writing process depicted with as much life as it is here. While writers act out and live with their characters, so much of it is cerebral that watching someone create a novel would usually be tantamount to watching paint dry. Here, they breathe it life.

While The Man Who Invented Christmas seems to be tied to the holiday he helped to shape, this Dickens biography can be viewed any time of the year and it is a film I would highly recommend.

For other Christmas films, check out our Review Hub: Christmas Films.