A Very Murray Christmas
Dir: Sofia Coppola
2015
**
I'm not a huge Christmas guy to be honest but I love the old seasonal television specials from Bing Crosby and the like, where everyone was wearing Christmas jumpers, sat in a log cabin somewhere with someone at the piano and a special guest here and there bringing a touch of comedy to proceedings. Cheesy as hell but magical all the same. An updated version of one of those classics starring the one and only Bill Murray sounds like an awesome idea on paper, but unfortunately the reality is something quite flat. The premise is that Murray, who is playing himself, is set to put on a live Christmas Eve show in a fancy hotel somewhere in down-town Manhattan. Due to heavy snowfall, New York suffers a power cut and the live link is severed, as is Murray's obligation. The food in the kitchen needs to be eaten before it goes off and so the remaining guests cosy up in the bar and eat, drink, sing and drink some more. Sounds great, but it really isn't. There is, in my opinion, far too much singing. The guest stars aren't great and are written into the 'plot' rather badly. It feels like a very tired take on the rather tired Muppet theme of needing to put on a show - which is in turn the actual show. The Muppets get away with it (just) because they are the Muppets and the Muppets can do no wrong (apart from Lady Gaga and the Muppets' Holiday Spectacular that is). Scrooged is one of my very favorite Christmas films but this is nothing like that, it is just odd, and the idea of a Bill Murray-doesn't-want-to-be-in-it parody about Bill Murray not wanting to be in something - even though he wrote it, doesn't really work. I'm under the impression that the USA has quite a few seasonal specials around Christmas and I can see why this might come as something of a relief, but we don't have many at all in the UK, and that comes as a relief, if this is the best of the best. I like the way Sofia Coppola directed it, I liked the boozy feel of it and most of the songs. I also loved seeing a glimpse of New York in winter, I just didn't think much of how the guests were introduced and how they were written. Michael Cera and Jason Schwartzman didn't play themselves even though Chris Rock and George Clooney did, neither Cera or Rock had great cameos, they were there purely to add a name to the credits and Clooney and Miley Cyrus's dreamlike appearances verged on cringe-worthy as Clooney's comedy was off and watching a half-naked Cyrus dancing around two men who are triple her age is a little distasteful, even if it does seem authentic to the Christmas specials of yesteryear. I guess I thought it would be funny, and if not funny then at least melancholic - which I think it was trying to be but didn't quite get there. Written by a heavy drinker, starring a heavy drinker and should only be watched after a few long drinks for optimum enjoyment. Keep drinking until you like it is my advice.