Starring: Jim BroadbentRafe SpallWarwick DavisStephen Graham, Kit Connor, Nonso Anozie, Matt King, Perry Benson, Ewen Bremner and Jodie Whittaker

Written and Directed by: Christopher Smith

Genre: Family / Adventure / Comedy

Runtime: 1 hour 42 minutes (approx.)

Get Santa is a very British affair with absolutely no attempt to woo American audiences by toning down the Brit humour despite being distributed by Warner Bros. The only real Americanism is the use of the phrase Santa Claus

Wandsworth Times:

To be honest the storyline is pretty much the same regurgitated tale of a young child from a dysfunctional family needing the help from his Dad to save Christmas. In this case we have nine year old Tom (Kit Connor) who is woken up in the middle of the night by loud noises emanating from the garden shed. Tom discovers a strange man (Jim Broadbent) dressed in a Santa Claus costume and sporting long white hair and bushy beard. The man tells Tom that he is the real Santa and he crash landed in London while test driving a new sleigh and his reindeer have been rounded up and taken to Battersea Dogs home for safe keeping. Santa needs Tom to help him rescue his reindeer and find his sleigh otherwise there will be no Christmas.

Tom phones his estranged  Dad, Steve (Rafe Spall) who has just been released from prison after serving 2 years for being involved in a robbery, although he’s quick to point out that he was only the getaway driver (well that’s OK then!). Tom tells his Dad who he keeps referring to as Steve, that Santa is in their shed and needs their help to save Christmas. On hearing that his son is alone in his shed with some crazy old man, he drives over there like a man possessed ready to beat ten tonne of doo doo out of this pervert.

Wandsworth Times:

Steve isn’t convinced that this old man is Santa Claus even though Santa tells Steve that they met many years ago when he brought him a Rubik’s Cube for Christmas which Steve still treasures to this day. Steve sends the old man on his way and Santa decides to go it alone and free his reindeer but he is captured on CCTV and arrested for breaking and entering and sent to Lambeth Prison.

Tom convinces his Dad to take him to see Santa in prison and even though Steve still doesn’t buy into his story he tells Santa to go and see an old inmate of his called Barber (Stephen Graham) who educates Santa on how to toughen up to survive in the slammer and also gives him a new hairstyle as well as a new nickname of ‘Mad Jimmy Claws’. Meanwhile Steve and his son Tom track down the reindeer who have been transported to Richmond Park and find Santa’s  beaten up sleigh and Steve begins to believe that the real Santa is now locked up with a bunch of criminals. And so they devise a plan to break the old boy out of prison to save Christmas for the children of the World.

Wandsworth Times:

For a Christmas movie this is a bit of an oddity and probably not to everyone’s taste. But then again the writer and director Christopher Smith seemed like an unusual choice to helm a seasonal family offering considering his previous films have all been in the horror genre with the likes of Creep (2004), Severance (2006), Triangle (2009) and Black Death (2010).

The film is enjoyable enough and Jim Broadbent looks as though he is having great fun with his take on Santa Claus / Father Christmas. There is also an appearance from Warwick Davis as ‘Sally’ the prison tunnel King (cockney rhyming slang – Sally Gunnell), comedy actress Joanna Scanlan as Steve’s hard-nosed parole officer and an underused Jodie Whittaker, Attack the Block (2011) and TVs Broadchurch (2013).
Get Santa Trailer:

It’s Ok but I’d probably wait to see it on DVD / Blu-ray but then again the Christmas holidays will probably be over by then.

Two out of Five stars.

In cinemas Friday December 5, 2014