Alice Oscura, Featured Writer
Warning: Some Spoilers Ahead.
Plot: Jorge (Leandro Hassum) doesn’t like Christmas because he was born on Christmas Day. Being made to share a birthday on one of the most auspicious days of the year meant never getting a decent birthday party, so he would always go travelling during that time of the year. That is, until he got married and had kids of his own. However, this Christmas would be different. This time he is about to be taught a particularly important lesson about the true meaning of Christmas and how important it is to celebrate with your family…even if they drive you absolutely nuts every single time!
Review: Netflix’s Just Another Christmas is not just another predictable Christmas movie. This Brazilian entry to the season brings a neat twist to the “Groundhog Day” type-of-plot, with some element of Click as well.
Middle-aged Jorge is tired of being forced to celebrate Christmas every year with his hypocritical relatives. That is until his catatonic father-in-law Grandpa Nhanhão (Levi Ferreira) places a curse on Jorge which activates when he falls off the roof after being forced to play Santa Claus for the kids. When Jorge wakes up on what should be the 26th if December, he soon realises that a whole year has passed and that it’s actually Christmas the next year. He lost an entire year and only remembers the previous Christmases, but nothing in between.
Jorge eventually explains what he is experiencing to his wife Laura (Elisa Pinheiro) and she tries her best to support him through his “condition”. But the dynamic eventually shifts as Jorge and his family begin to age, with years passing and Jorge missing out on his kids growing up, his work promotions and drifting apart from his beautiful wife.
What makes this movie so brilliant is that it’s not just about the comedic elements with Jorge; it’s also about the importance of Christmas and its traditions that brings the family all together. As Jorge gets older, he is faced with two versions of himself — the one that exists throughout the entire year and the one that wakes up on Christmas day not remembering what has passed. He eventually begins to dislike the version of himself that exists during the year, because that Jorge is so caught up with work and himself that he doesn’t have time for his family. Hassum’s comedic timing is excellent as Jorge, and he shows the depth to his emotional range when the atmosphere shifts.
The film temporarily veers away from the theme of Christmas and peers into life itself. It forces us to hold up a mirror to ourselves and examine whether or not we are satisfied with the life that we have created and how has it affected our family, negatively or positively?
I know that sometimes even under normal circumstances sometimes the holidays can bring up so many feelings good and bad. The preparations may sometimes be fun or a giant pain in the butt, not to mention having to deal with some not so nice attitudes from fellow shoppers. Plus you are always going to have to encounter one or two relatives that you are not on good terms with. But sometimes the sacrifice is worth it because life is short and you do not want to end up in your later years full of regrets. Every year you get older and so does everyone else. So you’ve got to make sacrifices, especially when you have kids and you have to ensure they grow up not only rooted in family traditions, but understanding the importance of holidays and family.
Just Another Christmas is definitely a fun, comedic and emotional film that has surprisingly deep life lessons to teach us.
Alice’s Score: 8 out of 10
For my review of The Christmas Chronicles 2 you can click here.
Dark Alice has an old soul and a curious mind. I believe that anyone can be a hero and that the good guys should always win! I dislike cruelty to animals and think that they have far superior qualities to humans. My motto is there is no future without the past. I also have a weird penchant for Paranormal TV shows even though the slightest sound makes me jump.
I enjoy writing reviews and throwing in fun facts to pique the readers’ curiosity. My ultimate goal in life would be to become a published writer one day. You can find me as Dark Alice Reviews on Facebook, my Instagram is alice_oscura and my Twitter handle is @lise_veliz2. For more on me you can click here.