Plot: After hitting a tough patch in his profession, Bradley Mac (Kiefer Sutherland) indicators a contract to look in a British pantomime manufacturing of Cinderella. Whereas navigating his choice, he reconnects along with his daughter and discovers a love for reside theater.
Overview: Once I sat down to observe Tinsel City, I went into the expertise pondering I’d get one thing midway to Hallmark with a lightweight dusting of hokey vacation cheer. Not solely was I appropriate, however that’s precisely what I wanted to get into the spirit as we method the approaching weeks of Christmas mild shows, Black Friday gross sales, and charity barkers who strategically assault you as you’re strolling into the native meals retailer.
What I didn’t plan for was watching a movie so extremely meta that I’d tip my hat to how intelligent it’s, because it has an Inception-like high quality relating to its presentation as a pantomime inside a pantomime with its over-the-top gamers, paper-thin plot, and love language for turning a Hollywood Scrooge right into a staple of British theatrics.
In Tinsel City, Kiefer Sutherland performs Bradley Mac, a Hollywood has-been not totally in contrast to Sutherland’s real-life persona, who, in a match of disbelief on the trajectory of his falling star, enthusiastically joins a British stage manufacturing, pondering it should reinvigorate his profession. When he arrives, he discovers the manufacturing is a pantomime of Cinderella, a gig not as illustrious as he would have thought. After being left with little selection however to honor his contract for the present, Brad embraces his circumstances and castmates whereas additionally reconnecting along with his younger daughter, who lives within the space.
Tinsel City paints Bradley as an actual piece of labor. He’s impolite, dismissive, misogynistic, and above all of it. Then, in conventional vacation movie vogue, he begins to alter, thanks primarily to the pantomime’s ragtag forged of kooky characters, and Jill, the manufacturing’s choreographer, performed by Insurgent Wilson. Via a collection of non-public interactions, entanglements, and embarrassing setbacks, Bradley finally learns to simply accept his circumstances and even begins to like what he’s contractually obligated to do.
I’m not right here to persuade anybody to like Tinseltown, however I urge you to fulfill the movie the place it stands. At its core, pantomime is an exaggerated, hyper-sexual interpretation of British theater. It’s purported to be excessive, mawkish, and greater than just a little suggestive. In that regard, Tinsel City nails what it’s going for, even when the film usually feels prefer it revolves totally round Sutherland’s character and little else. We not often see any substantial work getting achieved to make the pantomime nice, primarily as a result of we’re coping with Mac’s failings as a father and his lack of ability to deal with folks like human beings.
Some gamers handle to interrupt free from Bradley’s shadow, although, together with Insurgent Wilson‘s Jill, who has her personal hurdles to clear, due to an intrusive ex and the demanding choreography of the present to handle. Whereas my expertise with Wilson is proscribed, she seems to play in opposition to kind in Tinsel City, permitting her pure attraction to shine by. She and Sutherland share some good scenes, and their relationship by no means ventures past skilled, a uncommon path, particularly for a vacation movie.
Different stand-out performances embrace Derek Jacobi as Albert, a kind-hearted pantomime veteran, who in a span of minutes delivers the movie’s greatest scene as Albert tells Bradley about his late husband. Mawaan Rizwan is a deal with as Nigel, a happy-go-lucky everyman with too many roles and a smile for each event. On the identical time, Maria Friedman slays as Brenda, a perpetually-horny spitfire all the time on the lookout for a tush to squeeze and a quiet place to smoke a joint.
In the meantime, a C or D plot revolving round Callum (Lucien Laviscount) and Izzy (Savannah Lee Smith) falls flat as we comply with the couple by an uninteresting will-they-or-won’t-they dance all through the movie’s period. Whereas each performers are charming, their half within the general scheme feels inconsequential at greatest. Finally, I didn’t care in the event that they bought collectively or not, and their story exists just because it’s a part of the blueprint for a film like this. If a union doesn’t occur between Bradley and Jill, it must occur with another person. That’s simply the way it goes.
Tinsel City feels cringeworthy at first, however like several good vacation drama, it started to heat the middle of my sentimental coronary heart with its love of pantomime theaterics and interspersed moments of real attraction. There’s an “apology sequence” within the third act between Bradley and his younger daughter, Emma (Matilda Firth), that I believed was well-handled, which helped promote Bradley’s metamorphosis from a self-important superstar to somebody who’s genuinely making an attempt to be a greater individual. Whereas Bradley’s turnaround is kind of miraculous, given how lengthy he’d been staying in England, discovering a brand new calling can work wonders on the soul.
Tinsel City won’t be for everybody, however when you’re feeling such as you want a pick-me-up this vacation season, you could possibly discover one thing particular on this completely self-aware meta-narrative about superstar, expectations, and tribute to pantomime theater. At its begin, I anticipated the movie to go off like a Christmas Cracker with no pop, however I used to be confirmed unsuitable again and again with a easy story advised effectively and with coronary heart. It won’t be a brand new Christmas basic, however theater geeks are going to like it.
