Yule Love It: The Nutcracker And The Four Realms (2018)

Here's another film that wants to tell you "the story you know" in a fresh reworking, allowing them to advertise it as "the story you think you know", or some such. It's a visual treat, in places, and you hear familiar musical refrains throughout, of course, but this take on The Nutcracker is ultimately a Christmas confection that looks sweet but has nothing decent at the centre of it.

Mackenzie Foy is Clara, a young woman who is upset on Christmas Eve, first by a gift left for her by her deceased mother, a puzzle egg that she can't figure out, and then by an argument with her father, stemming from her refusal to dance with him. But everything changes when Clara ends up being taken to a different world by Captain Philip Hoffman AKA The Nutcracker (Jayden Fowora-Knight). There are four realms, and Sugar Plum (Keira Knightley) tells Clara that they are all currently under threat of attack from Mother Ginger (Helen Mirren). Things happen. Characters fight. Everyone looks like they just lost a wrestling match with a Christmas tree.

Initially directed by Lasse Hallström, and then a month of reshoots were overseen by Joe Johnston, The Nutcracker And The Four Realms was a film I was looking forward to, despite the poor reception it had at the box office. I like both directors involved, I like a number of the main cast members, and you should know that I certainly like me a Christmas movie. The fact that this ended up so poorly handled is a surprise, because all of the elements would seem to be in place to make it quite the magical adventure.

The script, by Ashleigh Powell, isn't terrible, but is perhaps a shaky foundation upon which the movie rests. The plotting feels as if Powell was constantly wary of making sure that she checked off everything we would expect from the story, while she was also striving to make it feel a bit fresh. It turns out that trying to manage both isn't possible, at least not in this instance.

But a script that may lack some confidence can be overlooked while you are being treated to some razzle dazzle in the visual department. Weirdly, this looks nice throughout, but never fully embraces the look and feel of the season in the way that the main characters do. The costume designer knew what to do, but it seems that others were afraid of giving everything a sprinkling of magic and stardust. There's some, and it's good, but not enough.

Foy is a decent enough, if rather bland, lead. Fowora-Knight is the same. Thankfully, Knightley has a lot of fun in the role of Sugar Plum, and Mirren delights as Mother Ginger, simply because she's Helen Mirren. There are fun little roles for Omid DJalili, Jack Whitehall, and Richard E. Grant, while Matthew Macfadyen, Meera Syal, and Morgan Freeman portray the main adults that we see in the real world, with Macfadyen the father just hoping to dance with his daughter.

Ironically enough, this could work like so many Hallmark movies do, as something pretty to have on while you wrap presents and do other Christmas Day prep. But unlike those movies, it wasn't designed for that purpose. It was supposed to be one of those films billed as "a classic tale, reinterpreted for a new generation". And it isn't. It's just a slightly-below-average fantasy film.

4/10

You can buy the movie here.
Americans can buy it here.