Choral film camped on a certain December 23, where the stars seem aligned so that everything goes wrong. With, and to top (complicate) it all, a major snowstorm.
Do you love Christmas movies, twinkling little lights, priceless earworms and predictable, comforting finales? Those romantic comedies in the snow of New York or London are so beautiful, but Montreal, or why not Charlevoix, would that be better?
That’s why India Desjardins wrote December 23, a film inspired by a true event. A few years ago, her stepfather suffered a heart attack, an incident that led to its share of epic twists, a few days before Christmas. Several details of the scenario, including one of the biggest (we won’t tell you which one), also happened in (his) real life.
The author (Aurelie Laflamme) and screenwriter, who loves Christmas movies, wanted to offer a recipe that was all from Quebec. With pies, bikes in the snow and the inevitable blocked highways. A film that looks like us, what, with our Ricardo tablecloths, but also our more or less subtle rants in favor of equality. Ah yes, and our crowded emergencies, how can we forget?
Like the classic of the genre Love Actually, December 23, directed by Miryam Bouchard (Vanishing lines, My own circus), with its lineup of big stars in the credits (Christine Beaulieu, Stéphane Rousseau, Guylaine Tremblay, François Arnaud, Virginie Fortin, etc.), is here an choral film, however taking place over a single day.
The feature film, which features strong women (but unfortunately men who are less so), begins with the air of an anti-Christmas movie: a young and eternal bachelor (as clumsy as she is endearing, Virginie Fortin, who leads the way) who can no longer feel “like shit at Christmas”, a teenager who flatly refuses to comply with the holiday tradition of his mother (unshakeable Marie-Hélène Thibault) and a last who s stubbornly dreams of a perfect Christmas with the family (in perfect hysterical Guylaine Tremblay, who gave us our biggest and frankest bursts of laughter). We won’t tell you everything (even if the trailer reveals too much).
PHOTO BY KARINE DUFOUR, PROVIDED BY IMMINA FILMS
movie scene December 23
Here, however, the comparison with the film by Richard Curtis ends, the scenario being necessarily less daring (limited?), temporality obliges. Let’s say that we would have taken more in terms of imbroglios (daring?) and other incredible misadventures (like this undressing in the café, or the family scene in the emergency room, memorable, to come out in our homes at Christmas !), impossible scenes that give all their bite to romantic comedies. And which make them stand the test of time.
That being said, the gags still follow each other at an honest pace, the lines are not lacking in spice, and the touch of modernity is frankly good. It’s a movie made in 2022, and it shows.
Nope, December 23 does not revolutionize the genre. Doesn’t revolutionize anything, in fact. But that’s not the goal either. It is rather an unpretentious film, which wants to be faithful to a tradition, funny, comforting and unifying. For a local holiday get-together. And to this end, nothing to add, except perhaps: mission accomplished.
Indoors
Romantic comedy
December 23
Miriam Bouchard
With Virginie Fortin, Bianca Gervais, François Arnaud, Catherine Brunet, Stéphane Rousseau, Michel Barrette, Guylaine Tramblay
1:41 a.m.