The next film, 2013’s The Christmas Candle doesn’t do much to lift my mood. This one is an underwhelming British ‘prestige’ production that was made for the big screen but feels far more suited to Sunday afternoon fall-asleep-on-the-sofa snooze-time telly. This tale of faith and miracles in a little 19th century English town aims for quaint and whimsical but doesn’t quite get there. It’s thoroughly familiar, old-fashioned, family-friendly stuff, a well-worn tale of struggling to ‘believe’ following tragedy but, regrettably, is rather dull and predictable.
It’s notable for being the big screen debut of celebrity opera singer and ‘Britain’s Got Talent’ winner Susan Boyle but that’s about it. SuBo plays the wife of James Cosmo’s peripheral smalltown character and there’s not much reason for her to be in it, other than to slap her name on the poster. She’s dragged out to sing a lovely song every now and then but spends the whole time looking and sounding as surprised as we are that she’s in a movie.
Reverend Richmond (Hans Matheson) is a handsome 1890s holy man who’s wrestling with his faith when he’s summoned to be the reverend of a cosy little town named Gladbury, just in time for Christmas. There, he finds himself at odds with his congregation who have a strange tradition where they believe that every 25 years at Christmas, an angel visits the local candle shop and blesses one candle, making it able to grant a miracle. Richmond is peeved that the town believes in this mumbo jumbo and rubs everyone up the wrong way. Of course, the audience knows that this is all real, thanks to some early substandard special effects pre-credit scenes that told us so.
The grumpy reverend tries too hard to convert his new flock all from this weird candle-ism towards something a little more pragmatic - work hard, be nice, create your own miracles. Meanwhile, a comical mishap by candlemaker Sylvester McCoy causes this year’s magic candle to go missing. So, the jolly chandler and his missus decide to fool everyone in town into thinking they are the enchanted wax recipient, hoping this will give everyone something to feel positive about. What could go wrong?
It’s fairly lightweight stuff and I’m confused by the reverend’s insistence on acting like such a jackass towards everyone. Yes, he’s revealed to have a tragic, faith-challenging backstory but it’s perplexing how much he pushes his luck. He’s so angered by candle-mania that he instals fangled new electric lights in the church that accidentally overload, causing a fatal, fiery cataclysm. It would take a bona fide miracle to sort this mess out. What are the chances?
The moral here is confusing as the film seems to be telling us to create our own miracles, yet the outcome of the tale relies heavily on divine intervention. Director John Stephenson also tries too hard to jerk tears that it all feels obvious and forced. It’s all rather insipid but at least it’s coherent, looks great and is still, ultimately, all about being a good person and doing the right thing. It’s difficult to condemn such a film, even if it is all, ultimately, a bit ‘meh.’
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