Film of the Week: Christmas Time

Disclaimer: I had this film scheduled to be released on Christmas Day, but I never got round to watching the actual film until January, but I was so intrigued about the film’s story, when things started to calm down a little, I stole myself away to watch Christmas Time, a film where a two estranged brothers  are convinced to spend Christmas at a cabin in the woods, but one of them believes he’s a time traveller.

There’re two factors that got sparked my curiosity when coming across this film on Amazon Prime Video, James “Murr” Murray is part of the cast, one of the four members of Impractical Jokers, and that time travel is part of the story. Being a massive fan of time travel in fiction, I had to see Christmas Time.

What I wasn’t expecting, as there was no notation on Amazon Prime Video, was it being an independent film funded by Kickstarter, a company designed to help creators bring their ideas into the real world with the help of their fans. It definitely has that look of it being an independent film, but the level of professionalism and passion the cast and crew has evidently put into making this film the best it can be, allows for an entertaining hour and a half.

Also, with it being an independent film, there are no special effects, no paradoxes, and no actual act of travelling through time, just an allusion to said time travel, but that makes the film so much better. It’s told from the perspective of the husband a wife team, Maclain and Clare Bernard (played by, Maclain Nelson and Clare Niederpruem) who just wants to have a good Christmas, but the husband doesn’t want his weird brother, Jake Bernard (played by Jake Van Wagoner) ruining it with his beliefs that he can time travel, so we don’t see anything on screen, creating a decent mystery. The story is simple but extremely effective in keeping me gripped through to the very end. Overall, the film creates a feel-good atmosphere that’s about a family coming together to have a warm, simple, and the most Christmassy Christmas as possible, all of which I felt, too, even whilst watching it in the middle of January.

James’ inclusion wasn’t much, but he had an important role in being a therapist. The way his role was written had strong notions towards Impractical Jokers. In the show he does crack up and hesitate whereas he doesn’t in the film, but if they had included in an episode of the show and he was able to keep a straight face and the other three give him the lines he says in this film, I doubt anyone would spot any differences between the two.

I couldn’t find how much money this film had raised on Kickstarter, but it was clear whilst watching this that they made every penny count. Also, being a project they had an opportunity to make and were so passionate when doing so, you could clearly see they were having so much fun throughout, elevating the feelings of Christmassy even higher.

This feel-good film wouldn’t make you feel embarrassed or guilty watching this even in the middle of July, because if you’re looking to be comforted and warmed up, then I do recommend this film to you. And if anyone thinks it is weird watching this film in the middle of Summer, make sure they watch it also, so they, too, will understand.

Thanks for reading

Antony Hudson

(TonyHadNouns)