CS Weekly Archive > The Big Picture > 12/22/06

Humbug Cinema:
The 7 Best Christmas Movies
That Aren't About Christmas

By jason davis

As the last week of holiday festivities nears, we can all feel a little worn down from the copious amounts of free food, good cheer, and shopping. That's why this week CS Weekly DVD Manager Jason Davis (with a little help from a friendly elf) cobbles together our gift to you: a list of cinematic alternatives to the usual holiday standbys, films whose stories occur during the holiday season, but are not about the holidays.

Tired of It's a Wonderful Life? Saying "Humbug" to the endless array of "A Christmas Carol" adaptations? So sick of A Christmas Story you could scream? Well, CS Weekly has the solution to your holiday viewing rut. Below you'll find seven movies set in the latter half of December, but not really concerned with the sacred month of retail, its ecclesiastical underpinnings, or even fat old men forcing entrance into the homes of expectant children in the middle of the night.

About a Boy (2002)
Screenplay by Peter Hedges and Chris Weitz & Paul Weitz (latter two directed)
Based on the novel by Nick Hornby
The script's gift to you: A humbug you can't help but relate to.

Will Freeman (Hugh Grant) is a professional do-nothing who lives off the royalties from his father's 1958 one-hit-wonder. A serial bachelor who values his independence above all else, Will discovers that single mothers are his ideal dates because they are reluctant to commit to anyone other than their children. During one of his more despicably contrived dates, Will meets Marcus Brewer (Nicholas Hoult), a 12-year-old social outcast who hopes the undeniably hip Will could become his stepfather, or at the very least, a much-needed friend. Will tries to dismiss Marcus and resume his purposely shallow yuppie lifestyle, but Marcus persistently digs his way into Will's abundant free time and forces him to reexamine his self-imposed emotional exile. Much like High Fidelity (also sourced from a Nick Hornby novel), About a Boy is ultimately about a man consumed by superficial pursuits who reluctantly overcomes the obsessive behavior that has allowed him to avoid responsibility for his own emotions. Though it sneaks into your NetFlix queue as a typical Hugh Grant romcom, this film focuses on the relationship between Will and Marcus, not the romantic subplots that set the story in motion. The risk of About a Boy is that it should be difficult to get people to initially care about a protagonist this hollow, but clever use of first-person voiceover, and Hornby's hallmark pop culture hooks help you relate to Will even as you judge him.

If you need a hero who works for a living, you can't find any better an everyman than a government pencil pusher…

Brazil (1985)
Written by Terry Gilliam & Tom Stoppard & Charles McKeown (former directed)
The script's gift to you: All the right ingredients for a perfectly realized world.

Set in a totalitarian state plagued by terrorist attacks, Brazil chronicles the misadventures of low-level bureaucrat Sam Lowry (Jonathan Pryce) as he attempts to rectify a paperwork error that has resulted in a man's death. Gilliam's film is a vicious satire that seems just a tad too prescient in its depiction of consumption-obsessed societies vigilant to the point of paranoia in the midst of a politically perpetuated war against a faceless foreign enemy. Rich in the details that really sell a world (i.e. Lowry's "state-of-the-art ultra-convenient" apartment, receipts for receipts, and a literal bug in the bureaucracy) Brazil illustrates that even the most insignificant details of set dressing and background business can go a long way in defining the setting of a story. With adventurous freelance heating engineer Harry Tuttle (Robert de Niro) and freethinking trucker Jill Layton (Kim Greist) complicating his mundane existence, Lowry spends his Christmas dodging sinister repairmen, evading his cosmetically enhanced mother (Katherine Helmond), and trying to make a difference in a world that doesn't welcome (or tolerate) heroes.

Of course, not all action heroes are bureaucrats prone to flights of fantasy, some are cops having a particularly unpleasant day…

Die Hard (1988)
Screenplay by Jeb Stuart and Steven E. de Souza
Based on the novel Nothing Lasts Forever by Roderick Thorp
The script's gift to you: Two hours of quality malevolence.

Based on a 1979 novel by detective-cum-novelist Roderick Thorp, Die Hard launched the film career of Moonlighting star Bruce Willis while bringing British character actor Alan Rickman to the attention of American audiences. Arriving in L.A. to visit his estranged wife Holly (Bonnie Bedelia) for Christmas, NYPD Detective John McClane (Willis) unexpectedly finds himself the only hope for Holly and her co-workers when the building is invaded by criminals under the command of the ruthless Hans Gruber (Rickman). Barefoot and barely armed, McClane must pit his wits against Gruber's superior numbers in a story that reinvigorated the action genre with a cunning hero and evocative adversary. The scene where McClane and Gruber finally meet face-to-face perfectly illustrates the sharp scripting of the villain, as he, knowing McClaine doesn't know who he is, instantly takes on the guise of a terrified innocent bystander. The scene that follows is a masterful example of two very smart characters at odds with each other, and their interplay provides more fascinating fireworks than all the film's explosions. The film would go on to spawn three sequels (the latest of which, Live Free or Die Hard, opens July 4, 2007). Interestingly, the underlying novel was in itself a sequel to The Detective, which was filmed in 1968 with Frank Sinatra in the title role. (Ed. note: You can also check out Tom Matthews' excellent article on the writing of Die Hard in the current issue of Creative Screenwriting.)

Eschewing action of the blood and bullets variety for something a little more ecstatic, screenwriter John August offers just the right tonic…

Go (1999)
Written by John August
The script's gift to you: A stocking full of structure.

A time-bending anthology along the lines of Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction, August's script chronicles one drug deal from four different perspectives arrayed across two cities. Intricately plotted to offer up revelations as the context of each sequence is revealed, Go plays like a speed-fueled romp through L.A.'s rave culture on Christmas Eve. Would-be ecstasy hook-up Rona Martin (Sarah Polley) tries to cover her co-worker Simon's (Desmond Askew) actions, while the latter skips town for some Las Vegas-style debauchery and finds herself in deep water with her best friend (a fresh-faced Katie Holmes early in her Dawson's Creek days), held hostage by drug dealer Todd Gaines (Timothy Olyphant) and an elaborate sting operation planned to take her down. Mixing comedy with action and propelled by director Doug Liman's (Mr. & Mrs. Smith) kinetic direction, August's freshman film offers up an eclectic array of well-drawn characters.

The same could be said for another first-produced screenwriter who set records for script sales in the 1990s after landing his first sale at age 22…

Lethal Weapon (1987)
Written by Shane Black
The script's gift to you: A re-gifting of the buddy action movie. (Ironically, one of Black's models for his unique screenwriting style was William Goldman, who wrote the buddy action movie Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.)

With witty asides and a knack for crafting action on the page, writer Shane Black quickly became a legend of the genre with his screenplays for The Last Boy Scout and The Long Kiss Goodnight setting records for Hollywood script sales ($1.5 and $4 million, respectively). Combining financial success with an artist's integrity (he walked away from Lethal Weapon 2 when his take on the climax—Riggs' death shows the sacrifice that a hero must sometimes make—was deemed detrimental to the ongoing franchise), Black has recently returned as a writer-director helming last year's Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang. Of course, it all started when he paired veteran cop Roger Murtaugh (Danny Glover) with Martin Riggs (Mel Gibson), a detective unhinged by the tragic death of his wife. Uncovering a ring of heroin smugglers, the two cops put their lives on the line in one of the most memorable buddy movies of them all. The life-affirming finale suggests that sometimes the best Christmas presents are the ones you never use.

Of course, if two's company and you're after a crowd, head across the pond for what must arguably be the first (and so far, only) romantic comedy epic…

Love Actually (2003)
Written by Richard Curtis (also directed)
The script's gift to you: Intimacy and scope all in one nicely wrapped package.

Seemingly bored of pairing Hugh Grant with unattainable American women in films like Four Weddings and a Funeral and Notting Hill, writer Richard Curtis elevates his trademark ensemble of eccentric British background characters to leads in an epic take on the romcom genre. Grant stars as a Prime Minister smitten by his aide (Martine McCutcheon), while a host of other celebrities fill out the film's canvass as a host of lonely hearts discovering the ins and outs of that most mysterious of emotions. Whether it's a step-father (Liam Neeson) getting to grips with his deceased wife's son (Thomas Sangster), a husband (Alan Rickman) contemplating an affair, or a half-witted Englishman (Kris Marshall) abroad in pursuit of American beauties, Curtis keeps his massive cast alive never letting any storyline stagnate while illustrating the depth and breadth of the eponymous emotion. The ups and downs of relationships are explored from every conceivable angle and the viewer is left with no doubt that connecting with someone is worth all the pain and suffering of opening one's heart to hurt.

Of course, the one romance the film wisely steers clear of is the kind that's best demonstrated by the United Kingdom's best-known celluloid export…

Ian Fleming's On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969)
Screenplay by Richard Maibaum, additional dialogue by Simon Raven
The script's gift to you: Bittersweet romantic filling in a hard action shell.

All relationships come with their challenges, but there are none so difficult as that of a secret agent and his wife. When producers Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman embarked upon their sixth James Bond film, they faced dual obstacles in the form of actor Sean Connery's departure and the unique nature of creator Ian Fleming's 11th novel. While the first hurdle found a solution in the form of Australian model George Lazenby, who donned the Saville Row suit of 007 for his solo outing as Britain's premiere secret agent, the latter would become the stuff of legend. After a succession of disposable women, On Her Majesty's Secret Service finds James Bond falling for the spirited and emotionally unstable daughter of a crime lord, Countess Tracy di Vincenzo (Diana Rigg). Averting her suicide attempt, Bond refuses her father's (Gabriele Ferzetti) generous bribe to marry the woman and instead woos her on his own terms. Alongside a Yuletide holiday to arch-nemesis Ernst Stavro Blofeld's (Telly Savalas) Alpine retreat, screenwriter Richard Maibaum crafts a courtship that is believably rendered by Lazenby and Rigg who together plumb the emotional depths of Fleming's cold-blooded killer. Setting the template that would be repeated in this year's Casino Royale, On Her Majesty's… uses love to refine the characterization of its hero, but in a manner very different from the newer film's intent. "We Have All the Time in the World" sings Louis Armstrong as Bond cradles his new bride in the film's heart-stopping conclusion -- a scene that brings home the idea that, despite the song's lyrics, every moment we have is precious and will never come again.

An eclectic offering to be sure, CS Weekly's 7 Best Not-So-Christmas Movies are guaranteed to break up the holiday routine with something of the season, but not about the season…and if you don't find one you like here, you can always make like your friendly neighborhood DVD manager and watch Blade Runner on Christmas Eve. I've been doing it for a decade. I couldn't tell you why. Some traditions just happen whether you mean them to or not.

Peace.

Bo Nash contributed to this article.

Jason Davis is the DVD Manager for CS Weekly , a contributing editor for Creative Screenwriting Magazine, and has written for Cinescape.com, MSN.com, and created the TV series Studio 13, which ran on Lorne Michaels' Burly TV network. He lives in the small space left over by his ever-expanding library of books, movies, and music.

About a Boy, Love Actually courtesy Universal Home Entertainment

Die Hard courtesy Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment

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