As I review Last Train to Christmas it's rated at 6.1 stars and that seems about right. An engaging concept that blends Sliding Doors, Back to the Future and Groundhog Day with a bit of Russian Doll is nonetheless let down by a frustratingly poor script, characterisation and direction.
Just as you can tell bad writing in the first paragraph of a novel or short story the first scene sets the tone. In strolls Tony Towers offering Champers to the carriage and it's all a bit of a mess from the way a surely curious boy in the foreground suddenly disappears, to the way the passengers turn round in sync and say yes far too quickly (where is the English reserve, is he talking to me?, not wishing to seem greedy etc) to the way Tony hands flowers to someone sat down and asks her to put them on the shelf when he is much nearer. I'm not saying that people don't take the piss but it just doesn't ring true. A more likely self-entitlement scenario is Tony handing the bouquet to someone who is stood nearer the shelf than him and being a shade less polite than strangers normally are. "Put that on the shelf, will you, ta," and turning away as if it's a given.
This sloppiness continues through out. One time Tony walks past his aunt. She conveniently looks up from her magazine on cue and only seeing him from behind immediately says, "Anthony." Not impossible, but nudging the implausible. In real life, we get up and say, "I thought it was you," once we've checked discreetly.
And what about when he first walks into a carriage? Notwithstanding that he doesn't notice he's dressed differently, the change in the carriage and surely feels a decade worse for wear when he finally sees his completely altered appearance reflected in the window his response is simply not commensurate with the shock, which he gets over very quickly.
Speaking of which, Michael Sheen never convinces as a nightclub owner. His accent wavers all over the place without ever seeming to alight in Nottingham and if he's a Nottingham nightclub owner I'm a Brussel sprout. He comes across as a middle-class luvvie with a scarily poor veneer of working class man on the make.
What keeps Last Train going is that in spite of it being so badly done in so many ways is it's actually a rather good story and a good production. I eagerly looked forward to each scene change to see how Tony had changed and a couple of the ideas in particular were quite cute. A Mike Read style DJ doing an ATP advert fit the bill nicely. As did the funeral goers and the morbid change in his aunt.
And when Tony decides to do the right thing and gently let the young woman he loves down, knowing what is best for her the story reaches its most mature moment.
As for flirting with his daughter, that may be a nod to Back to the Future but it is a welcome homage.
Ultimately, Last Train is a Christmas turkey but it hints so well at something so much better it deserves to be made again. Could Hollywood sort this mess out?
Just as you can tell bad writing in the first paragraph of a novel or short story the first scene sets the tone. In strolls Tony Towers offering Champers to the carriage and it's all a bit of a mess from the way a surely curious boy in the foreground suddenly disappears, to the way the passengers turn round in sync and say yes far too quickly (where is the English reserve, is he talking to me?, not wishing to seem greedy etc) to the way Tony hands flowers to someone sat down and asks her to put them on the shelf when he is much nearer. I'm not saying that people don't take the piss but it just doesn't ring true. A more likely self-entitlement scenario is Tony handing the bouquet to someone who is stood nearer the shelf than him and being a shade less polite than strangers normally are. "Put that on the shelf, will you, ta," and turning away as if it's a given.
This sloppiness continues through out. One time Tony walks past his aunt. She conveniently looks up from her magazine on cue and only seeing him from behind immediately says, "Anthony." Not impossible, but nudging the implausible. In real life, we get up and say, "I thought it was you," once we've checked discreetly.
And what about when he first walks into a carriage? Notwithstanding that he doesn't notice he's dressed differently, the change in the carriage and surely feels a decade worse for wear when he finally sees his completely altered appearance reflected in the window his response is simply not commensurate with the shock, which he gets over very quickly.
Speaking of which, Michael Sheen never convinces as a nightclub owner. His accent wavers all over the place without ever seeming to alight in Nottingham and if he's a Nottingham nightclub owner I'm a Brussel sprout. He comes across as a middle-class luvvie with a scarily poor veneer of working class man on the make.
What keeps Last Train going is that in spite of it being so badly done in so many ways is it's actually a rather good story and a good production. I eagerly looked forward to each scene change to see how Tony had changed and a couple of the ideas in particular were quite cute. A Mike Read style DJ doing an ATP advert fit the bill nicely. As did the funeral goers and the morbid change in his aunt.
And when Tony decides to do the right thing and gently let the young woman he loves down, knowing what is best for her the story reaches its most mature moment.
As for flirting with his daughter, that may be a nod to Back to the Future but it is a welcome homage.
Ultimately, Last Train is a Christmas turkey but it hints so well at something so much better it deserves to be made again. Could Hollywood sort this mess out?