A Sunburnt Christmas

A Sunburnt Christmas delivers the seasonal music, family, cheer and crime, minus the the snow. The film works simply thanks to solid dialogue and good performances, despite some contrived situations. There are some darker moments, some slapstick (mainly during the climax), and some cheesy bits, though they all don't flow seamlessly. Funny and entertaining, if a bit trivial.

An amusing tale of a criminal (Daniel Henshall) posing as Santa to escape a violent adversary while searching for hidden money from a drug robbery. The children were adorable in this story, and Tatiana Goode was very cute. Even though the ending was predictable, it was still enjoyable to watch it play out. Good family-friendly fun and worthwhile for adults as well.

Good natured festive film with strong echoes of WHISTLE DOWN THE WIND – while this is a much slighter and light weight effort, it’s good fun thanks to all the performances, particularly Henshall, Goode and scene stealer Stapleton, whose hilariously pious digressions are not strictly necessary, but add a nice flavour to the balance of cynicism and sincerity which permeate the screenplay. It’s never difficult to make the Aussie outback look great on-screen and this carries on the tradition.

Could have been good but squandered the last act with silly slapstick and a few other annoying issues. Tatiana Goode is a future star if she gets the right roles in the next 5 years.