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Bah! Film offers hum-dinger of a tale behind 'A Christmas Carol'

<h3 class="briefHead">"The Man Who Invented Christmas" - ★ ★ ★ </h3>

Using utilitarian apparitions and hilarious epiphanies, "The Man Who Invented Christmas" explores British author Charles Dickens' creative process while under assault by that vilest of literary boogeymen, writer's block.

In 1843, the great Dickens (the handsomely versatile Dan Stevens) has produced three flops after his crowning achievement "Oliver Twist."

For him, it's "publish or perish" time, and the author has only six weeks to finish a Christmas-themed story.

"Slings and Arrows" writer/co-creator Susan Coyne's clever screenplay, based on Les Standiford's book, capitalizes on Dickens' actual inspirational process: Once he identified his characters, they would abruptly appear to him and reveal their stories.

Except that every time Dickens threatens to crack his writer's block, someone interrupts: his extremely patient wife Catherine (Morfydd Clark), his financial failure father John (Jonathan Pryce) or his friend and unofficial literary agent John Forster (Justin Edwards).

Ebenezer Scrooge dominates the writer's time, of course, and Christopher Plummer's humbugged-to-the-max take on the immortal miser easily ranks as the most nuanced and memorable interpretation since Alastair Sim set the gold standard for wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous old sinners.

Mychael Danna supplies a playful, often frenetic score reflecting the writer's mindset in 1840s London, authentically rendered by repurposing the period sets from the television series "Penny Dreadful."

This movie really works because British director Bharat Nalluri expects us to come loaded for bear, armed with enough "Christmas Carol" knowledge that we get the allusions, references and things Dickens hears and witnesses that will pop up in his classic story.

"The Man Who Invented Christmas" historically stumbles on its opening. In 1842. Dickens appears at a New York theater while "I'm a Yankee Doodle Dandy" plays - long before George M. Cohan created it in 1904.

Blame it on the Christmas Ghost of Future Songs.

<b>Starring:</b> Dan Stevens, Christopher Plummer, Jonathan Pryce, Simon Callow, Miriam Margolyes

<b>Directed by:</b> Bharat Nalluri

<b>Other:</b> A Bleeker Street release. Rated PG. 104 minutes

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