White Reindeer

Dir: Zach Clark

2013

***

Zach Clark's White Reindeer is very much not your average Christmas movie. It's not what you'd expect from your average 'alternative' Christmas movie either and it's rather on the sour end on the dark comedy scale. It includes copious amounts of cocaine use, pornography, deceit, infidelity, sex parties, shoplifting, grief and a brutal murder. Bizarrely, it's probably the best example of what Christmas is really all about. Suzanne, our protagonist, has an ideal life. This ideal life is shattered when she finds her husband brutally murdered by burglars, just weeks before Christmas. She then finds out that her husband was having an affair with a stripper before he died and curiosity gets the better of her. After spending a good few days lost in a haze of drugs, drink and a sex party (courtesy of would be wholesome neighbours) Suzanne begins to put life into perspective. This is beautifully realised in a subtle but rewarding conclusion. Zach Clark calls out Christmas spirit for the ridiculous notion that it is. Forgiveness, charity, giving, receiving....all the things we associate (or are supposed to) with the festive season are covered here, just in a different way then we're used to. It's not perfect but it's a huge welcome antidote to the usual cliched Christmas stories.