My brother Nathan's favorite Christmas book is The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey,
so when I saw that it had been made into a movie, it quickly went into
my Netflix queue. I made sure to bump it up to the top so that there
would be plenty of opportunity for Nathan and me to watch it while he
was home for nearly a month between semesters. But it transpired that
Nathan was reluctant to watch a film adaptation of his beloved book, so
much so that by the time he left, we still hadn't watched it. He feared
the movie would be a pale imitation of the book and somehow diminish its
power. So I watched it with Mom, who didn't remember the plot of the
book at all and, upon its conclusion, declared the movie boring. I don't
know if Nathan would have agreed, but I didn't, so maybe next Christmas
I will try again...
In the book, the only characters are the
titular Toomey (Tom Berenger), the inquisitive boy Thomas McDowell (Luke
Ward-Wilkinson) and his widowed mother Susan (Joely Richardson).
The film expands the cast of characters considerably and throws the
primary focus upon Thomas, a lively youth whose devastation at the death
of his father (Elliot Cowan) in battle is compounded by the loss of the
Nativity set they cherished together. The set goes missing during the
move from the city, which means a departure from the warm, maternal
housekeeper, Mrs. Hickey (Jenny O'Hara), and Thomas' grandpa.
When Thomas arrives in the country at the home of his aunt, he is
determined to be miserable, but slowly he warms to the farming life and
begins to form friendships with schoolmates. Bratty Edward Hardwick
(Jack Montgomery) is a bully, but his spunky sister Celia (Saoirse
Ronan) quickly takes a shine to him, and they soon become bosom buddies.
He also finds a kindred spirit in nerdy Bobby (Benjamin Eli). But it
isn't until a third of the way through the hour-and-a-half-long movie
that he meets the reclusive Mr. Toomey, who Edward insists is a
criminal. Used to taunts by schoolchildren, the carpenter doesn't take
kindly to youthful company, but after taking on the job of replacing the
McDowells' nativity set, he reluctantly agrees to let Thomas observe
his work while Susan sits in the corner and knits. And with each visit,
he finds that he minds their presence a little less...
Ward-Wilkinson is very engaging as the energetic but distraught Thomas,
and Ronan complements him perfectly as the sweet but feisty Celia. I'm
looking forward to seeing her in the main role of Susie in Peter
Jackson's upcoming production of The Lovely Bones. I've seen
Richardson in other films and enjoyed her here as Thomas's stern but
kind mother. Giving us a glimpse of how she deals with her husband's
death and showing her ongoing struggle to learn how to cook make her all
the more human.
Berenger, meanwhile, carries himself the way
Jonathan Toomey would, but there's something wooden about his
performance, and it's not just the shavings in his beard. Though we get a
good sense of his progression from gruff to warm, whenever he actually
speaks, it sounds as though he is reading off a cue card. I find this
odd, since he is one of the most accomplished actors in the cast, but
his stilted dialogue gives us a deeper appreciation for "the value of
silence," which Toomey emphatically espouses.
Susan
Wojciechowski wrote the book on which the film is based, while P. J.
Lynch provided the evocative illustrations. The movie was both written
and directed by first-timer Bill Clark, who does an excellent job for a
novice. Though I am very familiar with the book, he almost had me
believing that the movie came first. So successful was his expansion of
the story that every element felt as though it had been there all along.
The film seems to be set during World War I. The location is
harder to place; it was filmed in London, but the American accents place
it stateside. Though the dialects place it somewhere in the north, we
see the children playing in the creek until shortly before Christmas,
which certainly wouldn't be likely here in Pennsylvania. I read that the
setting is supposed to be New England, and for the most part that seems
to fit, but the water hole antics just don't seem appropriate for the
season. Apparently it was also filmed on a sound stage, which would
explain why many of the sets looked "too perfect," as my mom put it.
They looked realistic enough to me, though, and I especially liked
Toomey's little woodcarver's hut.
It's a shame this quiet,
tender little Christmas movie was rushed to DVD late in 2007 with little
promotion. I'm afraid it has gotten lost in the shuffle, and that is a
pity because it is a worthy adaptation of a beautiful book, and such a
thing is a bit of a miracle in itself.
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