Our next faith-based movie, Christmas With a Capital C is apparently based on a song of the same name by popular Christian rock band Go Fish (no, I’ve never heard of them either) and is all about the so-called ‘War on Christmas’ - this idea that the religious side of the season has been ‘cancelled’. I’ll admit, having been on a road trip of the American East Coast in December 2016, I definitely noticed that even the word ‘Christmas’ seemed to be missing from TV adverts and greetings cards. “Happy Holidays” has snuck in as a more ‘inclusive’ way of letting people of all faiths and nationalities celebrate the season. Of course, many have denounced this as giving in to political correctness and - urgh - ‘wokeness’.
On the surface, this is a story about businessman Mitch (Daniel Baldwin) who returns to his Alaskan hometown after twenty years and runs for mayor against old school frenemy Dan (Ted McGinley). Dan’s the happy-go-lucky current mayor of this magical town where everyone knows everyone, problems are trivial and everyone seems to have those cool little seaplanes you tend to see in these films. Dan hangs out with his irritating brother, played by Christian ‘comedian’ Brad Stine whose angry ‘War on Xmas’ comedy routine inspired this whole project and who ad-libs many painful, laugh-free , silly-voiced monologues about how the season is being ruined by the P.C. brigade.
So, into town rolls Mitch, who’s portrayed as a petty and bitter and whose atheism might as well make him the devil. He sets out on a crusade, exploiting legal loopholes to attack what he sees as violations of his and every other non-Christian’s rights. Cue various scenes of nativity scenes being dismantled and ‘Merry Christmas’ banners being replaced with neutral ones. Dan and Mitch butt heads for a bit until Mitch learns that he’s just darn wrong.
It’s entertaining enough as a rote ‘smalltown goodies versus big city baddies’ tale. However, when I stop to think about it, the film leaves a sour taste in the mouth. Its stance is far from neutral, completely siding with the ‘put-upon’ Christian townsfolk, presenting them as victims in all this. Mitch is presented as a ‘Grinch’ who needs saving, rather than a liberal who wants to bring tolerance and acceptance to this predominantly white, Christian town. Therein lies the problem - rather than offering a balanced argument, in presenting Mitch as the villain, the film scores an own goal. In launching an attack on the ‘P.C. brigade’, the film ends up portraying these essentially decent Christ-loving folks as close-minded and ignorant, which probably isn’t really what they were going for.
Here’s a choice quote: “What, we have to include all religions now? A menorah and whatever symbol Kwanzaa has?”. These ignorant words are spoken by the town’s mayor. It’s a pretty offensive reminder that devoutly religious folk who refuse to evolve or compromise usually just end up making enemies and looking like the bad guys.
The film ends on a hopeful note with both sides agreeing to a compromise, even if the overriding message seems to be that the Christians ‘win’. And, for what it’s worth, the musical score is beautiful. This isn’t an awful film, just a really confused one.
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