The Phantom of the Movies once claimed that a third of the world’s most depressing movies hail from Canada. This G-rated 1985 Disney production, filmed in Meaford, Ontario by a Canadian director, is a good case in point. It tries very hard for an IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE vibe but misses the mark—although it isn’t badly made.
The late Philip Borsos (1953-1995) is little known to the world at large but highly revered in his native Canada, having debuted quite successfully with THE GREY FOX in 1982, and breached Hollywood with THE MEAN SEASON in ‘85. ONE MAGIC CHRISTMAS appeared later that same year, and quickly became notorious (I recall “That’s a Christmas movie?” and “How was it ever rated G?” being common sentiments).
Ginny Grainger (above the title starrer Mary Steenburgen) is (way) down on her luck at Christmastime, supporting her loser husband Jack (Gary Basaraba) and two young children Cal (Robbie Magwood) and Abbie (Elizabeth Harnois) by working in a supermarket. Her fortunes are about to get even worse, as on Christmas Eve Ginny gets fired from her job, just as Jack is shot and killed by a bank robber (Wayne Robson) who then steals Jack’s car, with the two children inside, and drives it into a lake. Luckily the Christmas angel Gideon (the not-very-angelic Harry Dean Stanton) is afoot; he’s already saved a kid from being beamed in the head by a hockey puck (one telltale sign the film is Canadian), and furthers his savior tendencies by bringing Cal and Abbie back to life.
But Abbie isn’t satisfied, and tracks down Gideon to demand her father be brought back. This entails a trip into a Christmas snow globe(!) where Abbie meets Santa Claus (Jan Rubes), who she begs to resurrect Jack. It seems, though, that only Ginny can make this happen, through a never-explained process that involves remailing a letter she sent to Santa as a little girl, which somehow causes time to be reversed.
All this has a fine naturalistic look (which was unfortunately ruined by the brightening-up process that tends to occur with so many home video transfers, with everyone’s face rendered unnaturally red), showcasing the fact that Borsos began his career as a documentarian. The performances, which include familiar Canadian faces like Elias Koteas, Timothy Webber, Wayne Robson and Sarah Polley (in her film debut), are well calibrated and unshowy, and the snow in the film, unlike that of much Hollywood Christmas fare, is entirely real, and seen more often than not clumped in filthy piles alongside roads and sidewalks.
The major failure occurred at the conceptual stage. A triple homicide that includes two young children greatly stretches the concept of Holiday Hardship, and its effects aren’t lessened by the climactic time travel do-over. In fact, the final scenes are morally and dramatically questionable, with Ginny offering the bank robber who in the alternate timeline kills her family fifty dollars so he won’t rob the bank, despite the fact that she and we know he’s capable of murder.
The film’s most compelling element is Harry Dean Stanton’s hard-bitten Christmas angel, whose melancholic, world-weary air makes for a fitting tone setter. Stanton’s presence also renders the film something of a forerunner to Wim Wenders’ WINGS OF DESIRE (1987), which remains the ultimate melancholy angel fantasy, although ONE MAGIC CHRISTMAS offers some stiff competition.
Vital Statistics
ONE MAGIC CHRISTMAS
Walt Disney Pictures/Silver Screen Partners III/Telefilm Canada
Director: Philip Borsos
Producer: Peter O’Brian
Screenplay: Thomas Meehan
Cinematography: Frank Tidy
Editing: Sidney Wolinsky
Cast: Mary Steenburgen, Gary Basaraba, Elizabeth Harnois, Arthur Hill, Wayne Robson, Jan Rubes, Elias Koteas, Robbie Magwood, Michelle Meyrink, Harry Dean Stanton, Sarah Polley