I saw the title of this film, I watched the trailer for it, and I still chose to watch the full thing. Sure, it was a gimmick, but so was Grumpy Cat's Worst Christmas Ever, and I kind of enjoyed that. It turns out that I was also able to enjoy this one.
Michele Simms is Karen, a woman defined by her very Karen-ness. She spends her days complaining and judging others, asking for the manager, acting hard done by after every slightest inconvenience, and generally making life difficult for those around her. It's time for an intervention, one that will have her spending time with three spirits. Gary (Rolin Alexis) will show her the past, Joy (Leyla Lawrence) will make her aware of other things happening in the present, and Damon (Lee Karlinsky) will show her a possible future. I'm sure you can guess how everything ends, especially when you find out that there's an estranged gay brother (Todd, played by Clint Robinson), and a young girl with leukaemia (Nia, played by Amina Massai).
Written by Jon Binkowski, who also co-directed with Lisa Enos Smith, this is an enjoyable and fun reworking of the classic, and malleable, Charles Dickens tale. Instead of being greedy, our central figure is extremely privileged, but everything else feels absolutely in line with a typical Scrooge. Karen may fill herself up with wine at every opportunity, but it doesn't help her to have enough Christmas spirit.
Simms is a lot of fun in the main role, making the most of the many little comedic touches to keep her character enjoyable even as she spends some time hanging on to the mean part of herself that needs to change in time for Christmas. Massai is a sweet and lovely Tiny Tim substitute, and her parents (played by Ashley Jones and Chris Greene) also do their bit to exemplify the best of human nature. As for the important ghosts, who all come along after a fun announcement from a harbinger named Jackie Morley (Meghan Moroney), Alexis and Lawrence are both a real hoot. Karlinsky is fine, but is stuck playing his character as someone slightly bored and impatient with people who don't always get the obvious message as quickly as they should.
While it has some of the flaws I expected, such as sometimes struggling to fill the many supporting roles with people who feel natural onscreen, A Christmas Karen is surprisingly easy to praise. The biggest problem it has is the pacing, which is mainly down to the script feeling a bit unimaginative with the ghost of Christmas future and then taking too long to show the post-ghost resolution for the main character. Otherwise, kudos to the film-makers for sprinkling everything with some pretty solid gags, having some key players in pivotal roles (Simms, Alexis, and Lawrence being the highlights), and even managing to make the world of the movie feel more real and properly populated than most low-budget movies manage.
It's a shame that this stumbles along for so much of the third act, because so much was going well before that. I still recommend it, especially to those already chuckling at the title alone, but it doesn't do enough to get way ahead of the more traditional Christmas movies you can choose from at this time of year.
6/10
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