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Writer's pictureGary Jive

By God's Grace (2014) - Day 215, July 28th


Proving that Charles Dickens’ work is endlessly adaptable, 2014's By God’s Grace is yet another variation on the ‘Christmas Carol’ formula. This one, directed by Brett Eichenberger has a faith-heavy approach, dealing candidly with tragedy and hinting that bad stuff happens, God works in mysterious ways, but we should never doubt that he’s always looking out for us.

 This one tells the story of twenty-something air charter service company director Chris (Cameron Deane Stewart) who acts like a total dick to everyone after a Christmastime tragedy leaves him lonely and empty. Chris refuses to let his staff leave early on Christmas Eve, denies a charitable donation to a desperate children’s home and decides to fire his second-in-command in front of the whole office. Scrooge ain’t got nothin’ on this privileged brat.

 Of course, he has his reasons to be the Grinchiest of all corporate A-holes. His whole family died in a tragic road accident a few Christmases ago, so he now irrationally hates the season and everything about it. 

 Luckily, help comes in the form of a friendly Christmas ghost. I enjoy the twist here that the “sister” who has been narrating the story thus far turns out to be the spirit of his deceased little sibling Grace (Savannah McReynolds) who turns up to show him the error of his misbegotten ways. From there on, it’s the usual cliched series of dramatic flashbacks revealing that Chris was a good boy once, with awesome Christian parents who taught him the importance of giving over receiving and stuff. He also had really good friends he looked out for and a practically angelic best pal/girlfriend, Samantha (Jillian Clare) who worked with unfortunate kids. This is all done in a heavy-handed way but thankfully isn’t too strong on the Jesus stuff, which I appreciate.


 It’s all completely O.T.T. and the transformation from good ol’ Christian boy to pantomime Dickensian monster is hard to swallow, though it is a bloody good laugh.

 It gets even more fun when we flash forward to the future and Chris learns how badly his dick-ish ways will wreck the lives of himself and everyone he knows. Apparently the pressure of work made him “crack” and in the future he - shock horror! - drinks beer and kisses a girl in a bar! Apparently this is awful, shocking behaviour. Worst of all, Samantha is now married to a loser who doesn’t respect Christmas. It’s positively harrowing.

 It’s hard to deny that this carries a positive message about remaining decent and the film’s heart is in the right place but it’s just all too much. The performances are uniformly hammy and it’s an amateurish production with poor production values,  but dammit, it’s totally worth a watch if you’re in the mood for a good laugh.



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