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Dealing with Christmas (2023)

Dealing with Christmas (2023)

5.2

An entertainingly bizarre comedy that needs more method to its madness

Movie

France
French
Action, Adventure, Comedy, Fantasy
2023

TLDR

Finally, something to watch on Christmas while you're high.

What it's about

A no-nonsense cop finds himself switching bodies with a bumbling character from a Christmas movie, and each man tries to help solve the other's problems.

The take

At least you can't accuse this holiday film of being generic. Combining the incredibly incompatible elements of drug busts and figure skating (and still failing to justify this crazy idea, though not for a lack of trying), Dealing with Christmas eventually begins to feel more like a series of comedy sketches making up the rules as it goes along. This definitely leads to moments of both excitement and effective humor, but its lack of consistency ultimately makes the awkward outweigh the good. Still, the audacity on display is something to be admired, and the film is just well-made enough to keep its constant experiments worth the curiosity.

What stands out

Dealing with Christmas tells two parallel stories that one hopes would be balanced evenly, but the film clearly favors the idea of the hapless Christmas movie character (played by an unrecognizable Eric Judor) getting caught up in an action thriller plot. These sections feel much more inspired and unpredictable compared to the scenes where the cop (played by Matthias Quiviger, also known as Ragnar Le Breton) deals with a quaint, fictional community. The sheer contrast between the two storylines is definitely part of the point, but the fact that they never really get tied together in a more clever way feels like a missed opportunity.

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Curated by humans, not algorithms.

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