'The Man Who Invented Christmas' Is Half History, Half Humbug
The film "doesn't reinvent much of anything, but its jumble of biography, fantasy, and backstage melodrama" is at least better than yet another version of A Christmas Carol.
In 1823, the publication of "A Visit from St. Nicholas" (aka "The Night Before Christmas") put into circulation holiday lore that retailers, advertisers, and other true believers have been rejiggering ever since. So it's a tad presumptuous to call Charles Dickens, whose A Christmas Carol was published 20 years later, The Man Who Invented Christmas.
The title comes from. He's inspired to pen a ghost story when he hears the tales spun by Tara (Anna Murphy), a teenage housemaid fresh from Ireland. So perhaps the film would better be called .
