Dashing Through The Snow (2023)

A film in which Ludacris plays someone named Chris Kringle, obviously. Oh no, wait, he plays someone named Chris Bridges. No. No, no, no, that is also wrong. Chris “Ludacris” Bridges plays Eddie Garrick. That is how I wanted to start this review. It would seem, from his billing here, that Ludacris may be wanting to creep towards having a name that is a bit less, well, ludicrous. Which is all well and good, and understandable, but I am still going to refer to him as Ludacris for the rest of this review. It’s just much easier, it’s advantageous for him, and we will wait and see if he eventually drops the moniker completely.

So, to summarize, Eddie Garrick is a man who doesn’t really believe in the magic of Christmas. He tries his best to help others who might be struggling with the season though, using his skills as a social worker to help defuse any situation when someone is going through a crisis. Picking up his daughter for a Christmas Eve visit, Eddie then ends up encountering an individual who claims to be Santa. Whether or not he is, he is in trouble, having accidentally picked up an iPad that belongs to some bad people while misplacing his own (which has Santa’s list on it - tech changes, but the Santa basic’s don’t).

Written by Scott Rosenberg and directed by Tim Story, this is a film not lacking in talent behind the camera. Both of those men have been involved with some enjoyable blockbuster movies. They are tasked here with delivering not just a Christmas movie, but a Disney Christmas movie. This is fairly obvious and unsophisticated fare, mixing in some father-daughter bonding, a Santa who never feels like he might not be Santa, and the kind of inept criminals who would be outsmarted by a small child in the later Home Alone sequels.

Ludacris is fine in the main role, being as grumpy and cynical as he needs to be up until the inevitable turning point. Madison Skye Validum is also very good, playing the daughter who easily accepts the potential for magic and might help her dad see things a bit differently. She’s unfazed by the events unfolding around her, happy to be on such a crazy adventure with her dad. As for the Santa figure, that’s Lil Rel Howery in the red suit, and he’s a lot of fun in the role, being as jolly and carefree as expected, yet also slightly manipulative while helping teach someone a lesson. Teyonnah Parris is stuck in a very minor supporting role, Oscar Nuñez is the brains behind the criminal shenanigans for the evening, and there are one or two other familiar faces in the cast (including Mary Lynn Rajskub).

Although obviously a family film, this often feels like it  is trying to appeal to younger kids ahead of anyone else. That’s fine, especially in the scenes that work well (and most children will be very pleased by a finale that brings in a fun “cavalry” to help our main characters), but it’s clear sometimes that the film holds back from being as creative or silly as it could have been. Someone wanted this to “skew young”, but not at the same corner of more general appeal. Which makes it slightly less satisfying, because it feels like two tonally different films forced together like a couple of jigsaw pieces showing different parts of the same picture. You could say, mayyyyyybe, that it would have benefited from being a bit more ludicrous, ironically enough.

5/10

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