Commercial, crass and cringing; watch with a retching bowl to hand

Rating: 1/10 (21 May 2020)

At the beginning the odd scene is just amusing enough to cause a twitch to the lips, but not a guffaw. However when the film gets into the abomination of commercial Christmas and gooey-sweet completely unreal kids the bad taste is ladled on with a trowel and the gorge begins to rise. And what a waste of talent: never before in the history of the cinema have so many fine actors wasted so much talent for such a pathetic film. Slick and embarrassing - I showed the DVD to my Spanish wife, assuring her the film had been praised by critics (as it has by some, presumably the hard of hearing or visually challenged), and after over two hours of soppy saccharine she had added Love Actually to Brexit and the Royal Family soap opera to her list of things which epitomise the ghastliness of present-day Britain. And I had to agree with her.