This film tells the story of Charles Dickens who is pressurised to come up with a story in just 6 weeks, to solve his mounting debt and restore his professional credibility.The story is more like a fantasy film, in which the famous author immerses himself in the story he is creating. It is interesting to see how the creative process come alive on the screen, as this is not a topic that is addressed often in films. However, it does not quite work for me, as I find it more like a highly psychotic experience in which Charles Dickens cannot distinguish between fantasy and reality. Dan Stevens' good looks is not put into good use either. Fortunately, the supporting character Tara has quite a lot of charm, so at least there is something I like about the film.

Or, more exactly, a wise one. because it has humor and drama and bitter scenes and hopefull scenes. it is a genesis fantastic sketch of an admirable book but, in same measure, it is not a biographic film about Dickens being one. it is easy to define it as a delight. but it is a remember. about the life of a great witer. about the roots of a sort of perspective about life and people. and good kick to discover, again, the freshness of a work. the film has many virtues. it could be perceived as a charming easy film, like a comedy or a film for young public, colorfull and seductive and little superficial and unconvincing. but it is a real good film for to give to the public what it deserves. a brilliant cast and good performances. the fictional history of classic book, the difficulties of the existence of the writer. and something else. out of words. an answer, maybe. to the crisis of our time. short, it is , maybe, not the impressive film who you expect. but it is an usefull one. and that is the most significant virtue of it.

Dicken's Christmas Carol is no doubt a classic. The original film British production is too. That's the one you need and not the later day versions and re-imaginations. Now though there is a worthy alternate version in the guise of the story behind Charles Dicken's creation of the book. This is an interesting angle and and we see how Dicken's himself was fighting his own inner Scrooge leanings compounded by his suddenly run of poor book sales. This is worthy because it has the very human elements running through it that make A Christmas Carol so wonderful.Dan Stevens as Dickens creates a memorable character with lots of emotional as well as financial strain from which to play off of. He brings a nervous tension of things falling apart while he pedals hard to keep it all together. Keeping it together rides on his reversal of recent writing fortune so the stakes are quite high as he's used up his publisher's will to coddle him. He's on his own and it propels his madness into quite a stir. Christopher Plummer is a natural for Scrooge and he's excellent without breaking a sweat which he wisely does as he never overplays the role. Maybe one of the most endearing characters is quite unexpected, it's Dicken's father John played with aplomb by the wonderful Jonathan Pryce. Surrounding these central characters with a great supporting cast in a spot-on period London filmed with grand cinematography is extremely romantic and engaging. Seeing Dicken's toil to bring the story to birth becomes another telling of the story itself. Simply wonderful!

With 2017 behind us, THIS should have been movie of the year... or at least nominated for an Oscar.I've never liked "A Christmas Carol" because it indoctrinates the audience (whether in text or video) to a psychological dysfunction called "Karpman's Drama Triangle". People who are "stuck" in Karpman's Drama Triangle view the world as everyone falling into one of three categories... victim, persecutor or rescuer. And through this story, one can easily see that Dickens was firmly entrenched in Karpman's Drama Triangle! If you're reading this thinking; Yes. Of course everyone falls into one of those 3 categories... then congratulations. You've just diagnosed your own psychological dysfunction (and I recommend you work on breaking free of it).What drew me to this movie was curiosity over whether it would depict Dickens himself having this dysfunctional map of reality. Not only did it do so... it did so brilliantly! People "stuck" in Kaprman's Drama Triangle tend to move easily between the roles of victim, persecutor, and rescuer... but are most comfortable in one of those roles. This movie accurately depicted how Dickens was able to move between these roles in the creation of each character within the story. And it showed how his personal experiences influenced his values and perceptions to align with Karpman's Drama Triangle (which is a "learned" psychological dysfunction). This movie also accurately depicted how many fictional writers actually craft their stories... creating characters that "come alive" in the writers mind. And how many fictional characters are loosely based upon real people (including aspects of the author).First, read about Karpman's Drama Triangle... then watch this movie. That will leave you with a completely different perspective toward "A Christmas Carol".