The star-studded musical Christmas comedy was written and directed by Sofia Coppola and cowriten by Bill Murray and Mitch Glazer. It’s the story of Bill Murray’s Christmas Special gone terribly wrong.
Spoilers Ahead, I guess
PLOT:
Bill is at his suite with what I assume are his relatives. Then his wannabe agent, Jackie ( Michael Cera ) shows up and bothers him, for a bit. Bill plans on hosting a live TV special for Christmas, full of celebrity guests. Most of whom, along with the crew have cancelled due to a snowstorm.
The producers plan on pre-recording Bill Murray’s scenes, so that he doesn’t have to go live with the show. While trying to perform a song, he breaks down in tears and leaves the hotel, where he bumps into Chris Rock. They perform a song together. Then Rock takes off.
Now Bill is desperately trying to find a musical performance. Which results in him harassing the crew until some random guy whips out a Christmas tune, while Elliott ( Jason Schwartzman ). Next up, a weeping bride ( Rashida Jones ) has had her wedding called off by drummer boy Elliott. Another song between the two magically fixes their entire engagement.
After this, it’s literally just singing. Only now George Clooney and Miley Cyrus have joined. The End I guess?
CONCLUSION:
A Very Murray Christmas was a charming concept. I can see what they were trying to do, though it could have used a little less singing, and a little more comedy. Seriously, I’m pretty sure over half the movie was singing. Which isn’t wrong in itself, I just wished the filn took a slightly different direction.
Otherwise, it was nice seeing a film have a cast as good as this. The overall plot was decent, though could have probably worked better as a 20-30 minute short film, as oposed to nearly an hour. Ironically, for a film about a Christmas special, it ended up being more Christmas special than movie. Then again, maybe that was the idea. The singing parts were pretty standard as far as TV Christmas specials go, the rest, for what little it was, I’d give a 5/10.
-The Screenwriter
RIP Jeremy Bulloch
Bill Murray thumbnail by Greg2600
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