It was just there on HBO Max and we decided, why not? We did not
have high hopes for this picture. But ACSC really surprised
us. We liked the film more with each scene and by the time it was over, we
decided ACSC is a fine Christmas movie.
We can't say if ACSC will become a classic. And
who knows how classics become classic anyway? It's a Wonderful Life bombed. A
Christmas Story became a Christmas classic because Generation X all
saw the film on cable at the same time every year, and by the early 2000s
everyone realized it'd been a part of the collective childhood. Every Gen-Xer reading this
knows the lines. 'Fragile, must be Italian'.
In ACSC Peter Billingsley is oddly endearing
as a 40ish Ralph Parker. Billingsley looks like a grownup version of his
9-year-old self, without being creepy. Ralph is a normal dad with a dream,
trying to do right. Never is Ralph a bumbling dad. In fact, Ralph has several
tasks in ACSC which he performs admirably - like taking care
of the Christmas shopping. Reader(s) will see why this writer related to Ralph
right away.
The year is 1973 in all its floppy haired,
side burned, bushy mustached, avocado and harvest gold glory that Generation X
recalls from its childhood. Ralph Parker is a
grown man with a wife and two children of his own. The kids are great in ACSC by
the way with just the right amount of childhood wonder and Christmas want, with
a touch of modern insightful snark, which isn't overdone.
During the first few minutes of ACSC, Ralph
gets that phone call from his mother, played by Julie Hagerty, a shrewd choice
in lieu of Melinda Dillon. The Old Man has died. The camera zooms in on a photo
of Darrin McGavin, The Old Man in A Christmas Story....and well, if this
doesn't prompt an emotional reaction from viewers, I don't even know what to
say. Ralph spends the rest of the movie filling in for The Old Man on
Christmas, including writing his obit. Writing the obit pays off splendidly at
the end.
Much of the old crew from A Christmas
Story shows up in ACSC. Best friends Flick,
Schwartz (not to be confused with the actor Scott Schwartz, who plays Flick),
and neighborhood terror Farkus. The former bully is now a cop, and he’s not so
bad as an adult now. Scott Schwartz, another 80’s childhood star (who went on
to some movie notoriety later as an adult) looks every bit the early 1970’s man,
clad in flannel, sideburns and fu-man-chu. The 1970s really were an awful time
for men’s fashion, and Flick shows it.
ACSC has plenty of references to A Christmas Story; the tree, the lamp, the flat tire (ohhhhh fuuuuudge) the bunny costume. These inspire Ralph’s writing of the obit at the end. But ACSC manages to call back to all the original's sayings and 'things' without being about them. ACSC is never really nostalgic. At least the film isn't nostalgic for nostalgia's sake. Still, the plot wraps up and leads us back to A Christmas Story in the final scene.
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