I’m not crying, *sob* , you’re crying.

I had it in my head that this movie, A Boy Called Christmas, was an animated film instead of the live action film that it is. But I figured that I could do one more Christmas movie even though Christmas had passed.

I never anticipated this film hitting me as hard as it did.

A Boy Called Christmas is a story of hope, a story of love and a story of perseverance. It is filled with magic and mythology, packed to its brim.

Aunt Ruth (Maggie Smith) has to babysit for three precocious children whose mother was gone. Seeing that the children needed some magic, she told them a story about Nikolas (Henry Lawfull), a young lad whose mother had died and whose father (Michiel Huisman) was struggling. The village’s King (Jim Broadbent) offered a reward for anyone who could find some magic to renew hope in their land. Nikolas’s father departed with a group of other men in search of the mythical town of Elfhelm.

After awhile, as Nikolas was having troubles with his wicked Aunt Carlotta (Kristen Wiig), he took off with his mouse friend Miika (Stephen Merchant), who Nikolas had taught to speak, to try and find his father.

Nikolas met a reindeer who had been injured by an arrow, helped him out and named him Blitzen. Nikolas found the village but discovered that the elves are mad because a group of humans had kidnapped a child elf.

Nikolas took off to try and find his father and save the child.

Honestly, I am not a huge fan of Christmas. I haven’t been for years, but this film is so filled with magic and emotion that you cannot help but love it. It does take a little while to get going and I was disappointed with Kristen Wiig’s character, but once this gets underway, A Boy Called Christmas pushes all the buttons. It is a beautiful origin story for Father Christmas and it has some totally powerful and legitimately painful moments. This is not just a movie for kids. This deals with serious topics, including grief.

The wonderful Dame Maggie Smith has the best quote of the film when she said, ” Grief is the price we pay for love, and worth it a million times over” which, of course, immediately made me think of Vision’s classic quote from earlier this year, “What is grief, if not love, persevering?” These are wonderful quotes to help approach the concept of loss for kids. Something this movie does extremely well.

You can add this to Klaus as classic Christmas movies to watch on Netflix. A Boy Called Christmas is everything that is great about Christmastime.

4.5 stars