“December 23”: Christmas disappointment

I loved this movie. All the ingredients needed to rise the cake were there. The title is a nod to my favorite Beau Dommage song. Screenwriter, sympathetic India Desjardins. The actors I love are Guylaine Tremblay via Christine Beaulieu and Stéphane Rousseau to Michel Barrette.

Unfortunately, in the end, December 23 It’s a marshmallow movie, steeped in good feelings and built on a predictable premise.

What a pity. On Christmas Eve, I unwrap a large gift to find a simple Hallmark card…

Hello clichés

The film is full of clichés: a single woman who wears curvy clothes throughout the film, but is noticed by the man she secretly loves the moment she puts on a nice dress and makeup.

A mother of a family who cooks for 15 people while only receiving three people. A father-in-law with nostalgia for the good old days and a fondness for traditions. A businessman who talks loudly on the phone while doing international business. Two lesbians who have joint custody of an animal instead of having children.

Throw no more, the yard is full. We’ve already seen it 15,000 times.

During the (very) intense publicity campaign for the film, the artisans proclaimed, “Finally a Quebec Christmas movie!” We asked again and again. But why should we completely equip our cinematography with Gnanan genre film?

December 23 Boasting a comedy. But the only time I laughed was during Kaylaine Tremblay’s well-realized banter against the food caprices of a new generation.

The script of the film is anemic. How come the granting agencies and producers didn’t ask India Desjardins to rework its script to put a little more meat on the bone (of the turkey)?

I have friends in the film industry who are asked to submit their screenplays over and over again.Are we lazy? December 23 Because with Kylaine Tremblay and Michael Barrett on the bill, we thought the public was rushing to the theater anyway?

The film is very open to diversity (a lesbian couple, bi-racial couples, an immigrant family). It ticks all the right boxes. But it is very decent…

The worst scene in the film happens in an ambulance. The ugly reactionary Monocle hesitates to be led by a veiled woman.

Of grief! Is that the image of Quebecers you want to give at Christmas?

Necessary reflection

At some point, we might have to seriously question the fragility of some Quebec scenes. As much as I loved it Drunken birds, Confessions, Cheaters (just to name a few recent films), I regularly fall asleep with magazines in front of Quebec films with sloppy stories, predictable twists or characters lacking psychological depth.

On the one hand, you can’t condemn the end of the Gala Quebec cinema, on the other hand, you can’t give the green light to films that don’t fly high.

We can and should have more demand in our cinema.