David Farnor | On 21, Dec 2023

Director: Reginald Hudlin
Cast: Eddie Murphy, Tracee Ellis Ross, Jillian Bell, Genneya Walton
Certificate: 12

Is a streaming service really a streaming service if it doesn’t have its own Christmas movie? Amazon has wasted no time in assembling its own festive line-up, including Your Christmas or Mine?, Something from Tiffany’s and Merry Little Batman. This year, it brings out its big guns with Eddie Murphy taking the starring role in Candy Cane Lane. But sometimes, bigger isn’t always better.

Murphy plays Chris, a family man who’s determined to make Christmas perfect every December and has a heart for festive traditions – right down to the handmade creations he uses to decorate the house. But after severals years in a row of losing the neighbourhood Christmas lights competition to a neighbour with an abundance of inflatable monstrosities, and unexpectedly losing his job, Chris is desperate for a win – specifically, the $100,000 prize for the neighbourhood competition. So he winds up spending big at a pop-up Christmas shop, only for the price tag to be higher than he expected.

Because, unbeknownst to him, the shop is run by Pepper (Jillian Bell), a mischievous elf who tricks him into unleashing the 12 Days of Christmas for real, with all of the decorations on their gigantic tree coming to life – and if he can’t catch them all in time, he’ll be turned into a tiny wooden figurine. Along the way, he has to reconnect with his wife, Carol (Tracee Ellis Ross), whose career is taking off, listen to his son, Nick (Thaddeus J Mixson), who’s more interested in music than maths, and encourage his daughter, Joy (Genneya Walton), a budding athletics star with her own plans for her future.

If that sounds like a lot, that’s because it is, and the script by Kelly Younger follows its protagonist’s lead in getting far too carried away. Stuffing idea after idea into its bloated 120-minute runtime, it moves from family drama to absurdist fantasy without pausing for breath or following through its anti-capitalist premise. There are moments that are borderline inspired, such as a score of drummers drumming in a battle of the bands, and others that make no sense, such as javelin-throwing lords or french hens running amok in a factory. The less said about the maids-a-milking the better.

Jillian Bell is having a ball as the calculating Pepper, but it’s not enough to help the extravagant weirdness to find a consistent tone – although Pentatonix make an unexpected appearance to contribute to an enjoyable soundtrack. Amid it all, Eddie Murphy does brilliantly by daring to keep things understated as a man who just wants to please his family. But his heart isn’t enough to ground things either, as the film keeps one-upping itself to chaotic extremes. The result is all over the place in a way that’s almost impressive but sadly just winds up underwhelming.

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