A Christmas Story review: A delightful, nostalgic classic
Review Overview
Comic performances
10Gags
10Warm glow of nostalgia
10Matthew Turner | On 17, Dec 2022
Director: Bob Clark
Cast: Peter Billingsley, Melinda Dillon, Darren McGavin, Jean Shepherd, Ian Petrella, Zack Ward, Tedde Moore, Jeff Gillen, Scott Schwartz, RD Robb
Certificate: PG
A perennial Christmas classic in the US, to the point where TV channels air it for 24 hours over the festive period, this delightful 1983 comedy is virtually unknown in the UK, due partly to it hardly ever being shown on British TV in the years following its release. Directed by Bob Clark (who also made Porky’s), it’s largely based on the book In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash (as well as some other material) by writer Jean Shepherd, who narrates the story.
In a similar manner to The Wonder Years (which was clearly inspired by the film), now grown-up Ralphie Parker (Shepherd) looks back at 1940 and fondly reminisces about the legendary family Christmas he had when he was nine years old (played by Peter Billingsley), living with his Mum (Melinda Dillon), Dad (Darren McGavin) and younger brother, Randy (Ian Petrella), on Cleveland Street in small-town Hohman, Indiana. The primary plot involves Ralphie trying to not-so-subtly persuade his parents to buy him a Red Ryder carbine action 200-shot range model air rifle for Christmas.
The script essentially weaves together several of Shepherd’s own semi-autobiographical short stories. Highlights include: Ralphie’s friend Flick (Scott Schwartz) getting his tongue stuck to a freezing pole after being “triple dog dared” to do so; Ralphie’s encounters with yellow-eyed local bully Scut Farkas (Zack Ward); Ralphie’s father proudly displaying a lamp shaped like a leg that he won in a competition; and Ralphie’s encounter with a department store Santa Claus (Jeff Gillen).
Billingsley is wonderful as young Ralphie, his cherubic, blonde-haired, blue-eyed face somehow perfectly matching Shepherd’s older voice, right down to an impeccably timed fourth-wall break towards the end. The supporting performances are equally good, particularly McGavin and his frequent “tapestries of obscenity” (gibberish in the script, but you get the idea), and Dillon as Ralphie’s mother – her reactions in every scene involving the leg lamp are just one of the film’s many joys.
The script, co-written by Shepherd, Clark and Leigh Brown, positively delights in the use of language and is full of quotable lines and passages. One particular highlight involves Ralphie having to sit with a bar of soap in his mouth after a swearing incident: “Over the years I got to be quite a connoisseur of soap. My personal preference is for Lux, but I found Palmolive to have a nice piquant after-dinner flavour – heady, but with just a touch of mellow smoothness.”
Clark’s comic touch is assured throughout, packing the film with excellent gags, both physical and verbal – most notably an exquisite running joke about Ralphie shooting his eye out if he gets the Red Ryder BB gun, and its glorious pay-off. He orchestrates some wonderful comic set-pieces, with the ice pole scene and the Santa Claus sequence in particular both generating big laughs, and includes a number of little details that repay multiple rewatches, from background characters (Flick being stuck to the pole is a great example) to the beautifully framed sequence when Ralphie has to come downstairs wearing a hated Christmas present.
If the film has a flaw, it’s only that one scene has dated rather badly – if you’re watching with children, you may want to skip the beginning of the Chinese restaurant sequence altogether. That slightly unfortunate scene aside, A Christmas Story thoroughly deserves its reputation as a beloved Yuletide classic, offering wonderful writing and charming comic performances, all suffused with a warm glow of nostalgia. And if you were lucky enough to see the film when you yourself were younger, that nostalgic warmth works on two different levels.