So Netflix promoted this Brazilian Christmas comedy as being about a man who hates the holidays gets "stuck in a time loop where it's forever Christmas". You know me (and if you don't, I'm telling you), I love a time loop.
Easily my favourite fantastical contrivance.
Can't get enough.
But...
... that's not what this is.
Jorge tells us he was born on Christmas day, which, as yiu can imagine, sucks for all the reason Jorge explains in his opening narration. He's now got a good, non-specific job, and at home a beautiful wife, two young grade school children, a Berneses Mountain Dog puppy and his grandfather-in-law who is non-communicative after a stroke. But with Christmas bearing down, his anxiety is ratcheting up, and he's trying to be a good father and not be too grinchy about the holiday in front of his kids... he most certainly does not want to talk about his birthday, and even less wants to spend time with the in-laws coming for Christmas dinner, 2010.
There's the brother-in-law who is always borrowing money, the rambunctious nieces snd nephews, the critical mother-in-law, the fragile uncle-in-law, and the sister-in-law who clearly has a whole "Holidate" thing going on.
When Jorge falls off the roof in a Santa stunt gone wrong he wakes up and it's Christmas day again ... 2011. He doesn't remember the past year, at all. Things have changed a bit, the dog has grown, he got a promotion, he's working more, home less, stressed, secretly smoking, but otherwise it's just another Christmas, not so different from the last. The next day, it's Christmas 2012 and it is even more predictable. 2013 he decides to take a handful of sleeping pills and just speep the day away. It works so well he does it for the next few years.
He wakes up next in 2021. He has a moustache. There's a distance between him and his wife. The kids are now teens. But when the family rolls in for Christmas dinner it still seems almost the same, but then there's a phone call from his secretary who his son fields delicately. Jorge has no memory of the affair but clearly it's a thing happening the rest of the year.
The movie goes on to show Jorge encountering the changes in his life year over year, completely oblivious to what else has gone on for 364 days, only remembering the Christmas' prior... the family (and others) likewise completely aware of his strange condition. And it takes some bold strokes along the way, including splitting up, getting back together, and becoming a grandfather.
Jorge's reality spans about 30 years until the magic happens to return him back from whence he came, and it's such a sweet and sober realty that it's a shame the film overwrites it. I mean, it was clear that was always the plan from the top but it would have been more bold for the film to just let it happen, this bizarre amnesia of his.
So, at this stage it may sound like I liked this film, even though it's not a Christmas version of Groundhogs Day, and I did like it... to a point. That point being the film's lead Leandro Hassum.
Hassum is not an untalented guy, but his comedic persona is so broad and cliched ...too much mugging for the camera and wild gesticulations that feel so out of place in what's otherwise only a slightly heightened family setting. Hassum's goofy faces which appear so often in the first half make it very hard to take him seriously when the film tries for its dramatic elements. Clearly Hassum is ready for the drama but he's not ready to give up the dumb jokes and funny faces. I think about the awkward comedy to drama transitions people like Robin Williams or Jim Carrey went through and i don't know if Hassum is Brazil's version of one of those guys but the way he plays both sides of the fence seems to indicate, particularly in the comedy, that this is what the audience expects of him...
There's a good story here, and even its emotional manipulation I can somewhat support but it needed a subtler comedic touch.
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