This Is Christmas (2022) Review

Set in London on the build up to the Christmas period, we follow Adam and Emma on the daily commute from the village of Langton into London where the same passengers are on every single day. When the train breaks down Adam takes a risk to do the unthinkable and talks to the strangers, and even ends up planning a Christmas party for everyone who takes the train!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

A Christmas set romantic comedy that also involves a train?

Yeah it totally had me at all of that, I was well and truly in! The bonus was then that the British cast ensemble was very impressive but then the main thing that the film is utterly delightful and lovely. With a main story pulling many different people together because of the train journey they take to the smaller stories that come from this and new friendships and relationships developed.

Adam is struggling with his life and doesn’t fully feel all in on his engagement and is seriously doubting everything not only about that relationship but his whole life. The friendship that grows with Emma who is also having doubts over her life choices and her impending move to Chicago. They find each other at the right time to help both of them out and to begin with that was just a friendship and someone to talk to. Emma was working as a chef and that brought them together a little bit as well.

Ray an older man just seems genuinely unhappy with everything about his life and as we find out he has a rather interesting past. No longer speaking to his son and therefore not seeing his young grandson he will be spending Christmas alone. The friendship built with Dean is truly heartwarming and helps to highlight that age does not matter when it comes to being supportive and helpful to another person.

As Adam broke the taboo of getting people talking on the train they then became somewhat of a support network to each other. While I don’t ever really imagine this happening, as I have memories of getting the Metro to work and the same people sat in the same seats every single day but you would never speak. I mean wouldn’t the world be a lot nicer place if we actually did at times? On a train, on a metro/underground system. Although sometimes when heading to work people need music, a book and to stare at phones right?

The film doesn’t shy away from the fact that for a lot of people Christmas is not a happy time of year and that it is downright depressing and stressful in attempts that you just have to be festive and have happiness forced upon you. I loved that it had that as part of the different storylines and character arcs as that is just as important as making it all look amazing. The way people watching will be able to relate to different characters is another positive.

Considering the amount of cheesy films that are now released across all different streaming services at Christmas now this is not one of them, it is a genuinely more realistic film that allows you to take from it which part you feel is your Christmas. So quite frankly an amazing British film!

Boosting a cast of Alfred Enoch who people may recognise from the Harry Potter series or more recently How to Get Away with Murder. Kaya Scodelario who started out in Skins but has gone on to star in many big films including The Maze Runner series as well as my personal favourite Crawl. Timothy Spall and Joanna Scanlan are pretty big names as well right. Jack Donoghue was impressive in one of his biggest roles to date.

If you only watch one new Christmas film this year, please make it This Is Christmas.