Lost Christmas (2011)

Yawn. Poorly Filmed Snooze Fest.

Great Film overall

Fresh and Exciting

Don't Believe the Hype

Lost Christmas is a sad, melancholy and twisted tale of damaged and seemingly unconnected people in the city of Manchester.'Goose' is a 10 year old boy who on Christmas Eve hides his fireman dad's car keys in the hope that he will not go to work at Christmas. However his mum drives him to work and both are killed in a car accident.A year later, Goose is no longer the bright ten year old kid but a more streetwise kid who is supporting his grandmother through petty crime. A mysterious man appears out of nowhere. He calls himself Anthony, he has no recollection of who he is, where he came from. He can find things that are lost.It sounds like a bleak tale for Christmas, particularly one aimed at families but it is a story about redemption and second chances. Like a ripple on a pond cause by the throwing of a pebble, you find that the various tragedies that befalls various characters are somehow interconnected. Maybe Anthony can find some sort of solace for the lost people around him but can he turn back time?It may lack the usual Christmas sentimentality that this type of films usually have but it also lacks the cynicism but is realistic enough to connect to today's kids.

Although we missed the original transmission, we have sat and watched this film as a family several times. A lovely heartwarming (but definitely not smoozy) tale. The soundtrack is clever and very atmospheric. Great performances, especially from Eddie Izzard. Although I am a big fan of Christmas and we all like Disney I have to say this film comes highly recommended as an antidote to the disneyfication of Christmas. I have even purchased the 'Happy Prince' by Oscar Wilde which forms part of the story - quite a surprise and very cheaply available on line. If you like Dickens you should like this. Also, check out the Manchester and Salford locations! Give it a try - I hope it is on TV next year and is more hyped - it went under our radar a bit but we did record the repeat.

There will be those who are critical of the over simplified message of this film, those who feel that Eddie Izzard was not the right person to play the key role but I think that they are over complicating this.A seasonal film that has you laughing, crying and puzzled in equal measure until the ending glues it all back together. So many threads that in the end all make sense and the parts played by Eddie Izzard, Jason Flemyng and Geoffrey Palmer are stand out for me. The young lad who plays Goose either is a natural, or took direction superbly.There is only one section that is not researched well, and you will know it when you see it, but that is forgivable to an extent because the rest of the film is so good.Deserves awards and should become a Christmas Classic every year from now on.Enjoy it with a glass of wine, cuddled up on the couch with the kids and a box of tissues. Children over the age of 12 will understand all the themes, children under that age will still understand the main theme of the film.

I'm a sucker for tales about redemption,and in "Lost Christmas" we have several redemptions for the price of one,interwoven round a brilliant performance by Mr Eddie Izzard as a kind of Clarence the angel waiting to earn his wings.A small boy hides his father's car keys at Christmas,triggering a series of events that expand like the ripples on a pond into a series of minor and major tragedies that are seemingly unconnected until the apparently amnesiac Anthony (Mr Izzard)arrives to eventually turn chaos into order,changing history at the same time. Like "Quantum Leap" with added holly and mistletoe really. I found it to be moving and generous of spirit,refreshingly lacking in the smart cynicism that infects so much TV today.If you want post - modern irony for Christmas,go and look elsewhere. At the end no one actually says "God bless us one and all",but the message is the same.