Get Santa (2014)
Certified: U
Duration: 102 minutes
Directed by: Christopher Smith
Starring: Jim Broadbent, Rafe Spall, Kit Connor, Stephen Graham, Ewen Bremner, Jodie Whittaker, Michael Walter, Warwick Davis, Joanna Scanlan, Nonso Anozie, Perry Benson
KRS Releasing Ltd
When least expected, 2014 throws cinema audiences a surprise right as the year is reaching its end.
Get Santa is a British comedy that may endure the test of time, unlike many Christmas movies.
Few can be called classics such as It’s A Wonderful Life, Miracle on 34th Street, Love Actually and Home Alone. But Get Santa is the first film of this genre in many a moon that seems to have the necessary vibe and good feeling to enter into that selective list.
The film is set in London where Steve (Rafe Spall) is being released from prison where he has spent the last two years of his life. His main goal is to reconnect with his son, Tom (Kit Connor), who is 10 years old. Tom lives with his mother, Alison (Jodie Whittaker) who has moved on from Steve and is in a new relationship.
However, a number of events will turn the father and son meeting into something else.
When investigating something he has heard, Tom finds in the garage a man (Jim Broadbent) with a white beard who claims to be Santa. Tom believes him and Steve, who does not believe any of this, goes along with the story for the sake of reconnecting with his son.
Things get problematic when Santa tries to set free his reindeer who are now all over the city of London and gets sent to prison.
As expected it is Steve’s ex-prison that Santa gets sent to and thus begins the prison break operation to get Santa out, bring some magic into the world and, why not, even save Christmas!
Get Santa’s winning factor is that all the cast seems to genuinely believe in the movie, its silliness and also the message behind this father and son relationship
Spall fits the bill and seems to have a real connection with young Connor who is both sweet and earnest.
It was to be expected that Broadbent delivers a performance that would really fit the character and bring out all the right vibes. He always had that natural look to be a great Santa, the one you would want to come down your chimney (if we had one!) with Christmas goodies. In fact, this is not the first time that Broadbent has taken on this role: in Arthur Christmas (2011) he provided the voicing for the bearded one.
What is even more interesting in Get Santa is that this feel-good comedy is directed by Christopher Smith, a director who usually specialises in the horror genre and had scared his audiences so expertly in the likes of Creep (2004), Severance (2006) and Triangle (2009). Yet here he displays finesse aplenty and will have you leave the cinema all fuzzy, cheery and warm.
Get Santa enjoys a mix of different genres that makes it an entertaining watch. It has all the ingredients of being a warm comedy, all sentimental and gooey and yet at the same time is not above throwing some nicely laid-out action sequences, a prison break and also some funny toilet humour.
It’s the way it manages to move from one mood to another that makes this Christmas stocking offer just perfect.
Get Santa’s winning factor is that all the cast seems to genuinely believe in the movie, its silliness and also the message behind this father-and-son relationship. This is what gives the film that extra oomph that catapults it over other recent Yuletide movies.