Just Another Christmas (Tudo Bem no Natal que Vem) is a Brazilian comedy starring Leandro Hassum. He plays Jorge, a family man who hates Christmas and falls into a time loop that makes him continually wake up on Christmas eve. The movie was written by Paulo Cursino and directed by Roberto Santucci. It was released on Netflix in December 2020 and is in Portuguese.
The Plot
Born on Christmas day, Jorge hated the fact that he shared a birthday with Jesus and he got little attention because no one can compete with Jesus' birthday. On Christmas eve in 2010, he wakes up and prepares for the holiday, receiving lots of guests from his wife's side of the family at their family dinner. The dinner gets messy as expected and he whines about how he hates Christmas.
After making jokes about his wife's grandfather who had not talked for years, he hears the old man say he will learn the true meaning of Christmas. As he grants his wife's wish of dressing up as Santa and climbing the roof, he falls off the roof only to wake up the next day and find it was Christmas eve...again.
He finds that several changes had happened in his life in the space of a year and the events of the day were very similar to that of the previous day. He still had to spend time with family at the messy dinner which he hated and he wished for the day to end but then, he wakes up to yet another Christmas eve and has no memory of the past year.
How many more Christmases and major life changes does Jorge have to go through before he learns the meaning of Christmas?
My Thoughts
This is the second Brazilian comedy film I've come across and it also stars the same actor from the first one I saw (Just Short of Perfect). Immediately I saw Leandro Hassum I knew I wanted to see this movie because of how funny he is.
The story is a typical freaky friday situation and a funny one at that. It's a lighthearted comedy the family can watch and enjoy for Christmas. Well, I did watch it in English and there was little profanity, it might be worse in Portugese, I don't know.
I like that it passes the message of keeping the Christmas spirit alive. The take-home is that Christmas is a time of reflection of the happenings of the year and a good time to spend with family appreciating the moments you share with them.
It got quite emotional as the movie neared the end and again, I was impressed by the lead's acting.
I liked the entire movie but the only thing I found weird about the plot was the wife's initial reaction to finding that Jorge had no memory of a year past. She seemed too cool and it wasn't believable. Other than that, everything was just okay.
You should definitely watch this for some Christmas cheer. A 4 out of 5 stars in my books.
Watch here on Netflix.
Discord - wolfofnostreet#4939