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The Man Who Invented Christmas

The Man Who Invented Christmas

Drama · History · Comedy · 2017

In 1843, despite the fact that Dickens is a successful writer, the failure of his latest book puts his career at a crossroads, until the moment when, struggling with inspiration and confronting reality with his childhood memories, a new character is born in the depths of his troubled mind; an old, lonely, embittered man, so vivid, so human, that a whole world grows around him, a story so inspiring that changed the meaning of Christmas forever.

Movie details

The Man Who Invented Christmas

“How Charles Dickens wrote “A Christmas Carol” and created a tradition.”

2017 Drama · History · Comedy 1h 45m

Critical arithmetic

The consensus, allegedly.

IMDb

7.0 / 10

22K votes

Rotten Tomatoes

79 %

Tomatometer

Metacritic

60 / 100

Metascore

TMDB

6.8 / 10

Community rating

External scores via OMDb · CC BY-NC 4.0. Values normalized for display; availability varies by title.

In 1843, despite the fact that Dickens is a successful writer, the failure of his latest book puts his career at a crossroads, until the moment when, struggling with inspiration and confronting reality with his childhood memories, a new character is born in the depths of his troubled mind; an old, lonely, embittered man, so vivid, so human, that a whole world grows around him, a story so inspiring that changed the meaning of Christmas forever.

CriticWise case file

What this film says about your taste.

Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.

The archetype split

Who fights over The Man Who Invented Christmas?

The split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.

Taste neighbourhood

Nearby on the taste map.

TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.

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The Muppet Christmas Carol

The Muppet Christmas Carol

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Scrooge

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All Is True

All Is True

Drama · 2018

London, June 29th, 1613. The Globe Theater, ran by the famous playwright William Shakespeare, accidentally burns to ashes. Seriously affected, he stops writing and returns to his hometown, where his wife Anne and daughters Judith and Susanna get surprised to hear he intends to stay there definitively, after two decades working in the capital, neglecting his sincere affections for them.

Where it lives

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Names above the title

The people responsible.

Directed by

Bharat Nalluri

Written by

Susan Coyne

Dan Stevens

Dan Stevens

Charles Dickens

Christopher Plummer

Christopher Plummer

Scrooge

Jonathan Pryce

Jonathan Pryce

Mr. John Dickens

Justin Edwards

Justin Edwards

John Forster / Ghost of Christmas Present

Morfydd Clark

Morfydd Clark

Kate Dickens

Donald Sumpter

Donald Sumpter

Haddock / Ghost of Marley

Miles Jupp

Miles Jupp

Thackeray

Court is in session

Put The Man Who Invented Christmas on trial.

Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.

The defence The Prestige Tourist

“Sincerity is not manipulation.”

The film risks embarrassment to make emotion communal, and that openness is harder than fashionable detachment.

The prosecution The Adrenaline Seeker

“The strings are showing.”

Every cue tells you exactly what to feel and when, leaving sentiment to do the work character should have done.