This is a first rate class of actors/actresses who turn a previous stage play into a dramatic film void of any warm and wintry jovial family around Christmas time such as we watched in the (George) Bailey family's 1946 Frank Capra film It's A Wonderful Life. Rather, this is a serious story about Reverend Martin Gregory (played by Ralph Richardson) and his three adult children all coping with difficulties in their own adult lives and their widower father Reverend Martin Gregory is unaware of each of his children's hidden demons.
This is not to say that the good Reverend and father is not prepared to listen to his adult children's woes especially around the season of Christmas time, but how these adults all finally, one by one, share their innermost demons with one another and they unexpectedly but graciously receive the gift of a fathers love as well as good advice and support from their patriarch the Reverend Martin Gregory.
This is a timeless film of heartbreak and family support during a difficult time when Christmas which is usually perceived and seen not as white snow, merriment and turkey but more of remorse and forgiveness and getting that proverbial elephant on to the table to discuss and resolve matters within a family dynamic(s).
I give it a solid 7 out of 10 IMDB rating
This is not to say that the good Reverend and father is not prepared to listen to his adult children's woes especially around the season of Christmas time, but how these adults all finally, one by one, share their innermost demons with one another and they unexpectedly but graciously receive the gift of a fathers love as well as good advice and support from their patriarch the Reverend Martin Gregory.
This is a timeless film of heartbreak and family support during a difficult time when Christmas which is usually perceived and seen not as white snow, merriment and turkey but more of remorse and forgiveness and getting that proverbial elephant on to the table to discuss and resolve matters within a family dynamic(s).
I give it a solid 7 out of 10 IMDB rating