A very good tale, great music, great acting and visually beautiful! I haven't read this book but the director an excellent job telling the story and keeping the surprises to the very end!

Well worth the time to watch and enjoy!

'A Boy Called Christmas (2021)' features this absolute gem of a line (see review heading), delivered by the absolute gem Maggie Smith. The line itself is undeniably great, a poignant musing that's sure to move you on some level. Sadly, though, it's undercut slightly by what it follows (a rather silly and avoidable tragedy that befalls the picture's young protagonist), as are most of the film's other resonant moments. As a whole, the movie is little more than fine. Despite being relatively enjoyable at times and generally well-achieved overall, it consistently stumbles over itself and is an incredibly uneven experience. There are so many annoyingly contrived, noticeable clichéd and otherwise genuinely odd plot points that the affair is hard to take seriously and, even, properly engage with. One particularly peculiar inclusion is a pyromaniac pixie (well, 'truth fairy') who literally enjoys blowing people's heads up. I have no idea why the filmmakers decided to include that in a kid's film. The tone, in general, is a tad inconsistent, with the adventure slipping from seriously stupid to stupidly serious on a number of occasions. Its characters are also fairly flat and, though it has charming moments, it lacks the sense of Christmastime wonder that it really ought to have. Plus, its 'Christmas begins' elements actually feel a little forced, squeezed into the affair's baggy final third simply so that it can claim to be yet another origin for Father Christmas. Ultimately, the flick isn't bad. It has its moments, including a couple of entertainingly scene-chewing performances and a handful of exciting set-pieces, but it's just a bit unremarkable overall. Its plethora of issues don't prevent it from occasionally being quite a bit of fun, but they undeniably dampen its effect and arguably contribute to the affair's generally forgettable nature. It's the sort of thing that I can see people really liking, though; I guess your mileage will vary depending on how Christmassy you're feeling. It's a decent effort. 5/10.

The 2021 movie "A Boy Called Christmas" from writers Ol Parker and Gil Kenan is definitely a nice family movie in the meaning of that word. And this is a movie that has something to offer the audience of any ages.

"A Boy Called Christmas" is about the origin of Father Christmas, so we get to see whom he was and where he came from, and of course how he came to become the lovable character we all love so much, both kids and adults alike. So yeah, this was definitely a nice story. Granted, I haven't read the book from Matt Haig, but this movie adaptation of said story was certainly entertaining.

The acting performances in "A Boy Called Christmas" were good. Not a whole lot of familiar faces on the cast list, which is something I enjoy in movies. But "A Boy Called Christmas" did have the likes of Maggie Smith, Jim Broadbent, Kristen Wiig and Joel Fry on the cast list as well.

Visually then "A Boy Called Christmas" was quite good, and definitely had a very Christmas feel to it. So that counted well in favor of the overall enjoyment of the movie.

I am rating "A Boy Called Christmas" a well-deserved six out of ten stars. While this is not going to be a Christmas classic for me, it certainly is a movie well-worth taking the time to sit down and watch.