I love Christmas films – both versions of Miracle on 34th Street, The Nightmare Before Christmas and latterly Snow Dog are perennial favourites.
It's difficult to come up with a viable variation on a popular theme but what immediately attracted me to Get Santa was the pedigree of the producers, director and cast.
In Get Santa, Father Christmas has crash-landed his new sleigh during a test run just before Christmas and his reindeers have brought traffic to a standstill on Tower Bridge. This coincides with a difficult reunion between father Steve and nine-year-old son, Tom – Ralf Spall and newcomer Kit Conner. Dad has just spent two years in prison, mum Jodie Whittaker has a new man and doesn't trust her ex to live up to her son's expectations. When Tom wakes in the night to discover Father Christmas – the wonderful Jim Broadbent – in their garage, the adventure begins.
Tom calls on his dad who takes some convincing that Father Christmas is who he says he is but rises to the occasion when Santa is arrested when caught trying to release his reindeers from Battersea Cats and Dogs home and is thrown into the prison Steve has just left. The jail "makeover" of FC is very funny and Jim Broadbent obviously relishes the part as does Warwick Davis who as "Sally" eventually facilitates the escape so that Christmas can be saved.
There's enough magic for younger viewers and some effectively touching scenes for adults plus there is the inimitable and super talented Joanne Scanlon playing Ruth, Steve's probation officer, looking rather like Miss Trunchball. The special effects aren't amazing but the sight of Father Christmas firing reindeer poo pellets at the police is bound to amuse the kids.
PWT rating: ♥♥♥♥♥
Written and directed by Christopher Smith, Get Santa [DVD] [2014]
