Review of A Sunburnt Christmas

I loved it. It is a fun, warm and entertaining movie. It is also a bit different than your standard, typical Christmas movie, which is great. At times, I found myself laughing out loud and even shed a tear or two towards the end. The story centers around a family struggling with drought on their outback farm. As Christmas day approaches, things are upended and start to change when a runaway criminal, dressed as Santa Claus, crashes his stolen Ute into their shed. The children end up helping Santa (played by Daniel Henshall, he is great, by the way) find his 'sack' of toys (aka his bag of cash) during which he starts connecting and bonding with the family. The writers and director have done a great job developing the characters in this film. You got to love Daisy (played by Lena Nankivell), the little girl with the shotgun; Tom (played by Eaden McGuinness), the boy in the getup to protect him from the pandemic, climate change, and all other dangers; Hazel (played by Tatiana Goode), the glue that holds the family together; the single mum (played by Ling Cooper Tang) who is dealing with the loss of her husband thru an obsession with (beating) the drought on the farm, and their sheep (you gotta love the sheep). The characters, including Santa, are quirky and fun to watch on screen. I found myself quickly taken in by them and the story more broadly. The dialogue too is fun, and at times, heartfelt. There is also a twist to the story, and we even get a 'Home Alone' scene towards the end. What makes all this work on screen is, of course, the acting. Overall, the acting is outstanding. As noted above, Henshall's performance (who's character is at the heart of the story) was strong. He did a great job threading the line between a criminal looking for his cash and a man getting to know and bonding with the family. Plus, he was fun to watch on screen. The children too had fun and cute performances. What stood out to me on screen was the performance of Tatiana Goode as Hazel. She had a very convincing performance (easy to connect to, I thought). She is a very talented actor. I was also surprised, at the end of the film, when I realized that the mobster Dingo was played by Sullivan Stapleton. Did anyone else not recognize him? I watched every episode of Blindspot. So, I was a bit surprised that I did not know it was him until the end. All in all, this is an excellent Christmas movie. Something different to leave under the Australian Christmas tree this season.