Not the best of times for Christmas themes

It’s just about time to hunt for films that rekindle the joy and magic of Christmas. So far, 2024 does not seem in luck, with very average outings making it to the OTT. ‘Jack in Time for Christmas’, sold as ‘part scripted comedy, part unscripted travelogue’, with Jack Whitehall in the lead — embarking on an incredible journey involving planes, trains, huskies and bobsleighs — seems like a good premise.

That he encounters Michael Buble, Dave Bautista, Rebel Wilson, Jimmy Fallon, Daisy May Cooper and Tom Davis makes for a pitch-perfect plot. Only, it remains a premise.

Not that it doesn’t get off on a promising note. The Prime Video special has Jack starting with ‘It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas’ from ‘Christmas 2011’ singer Michael Buble. Only to find out that instead of being a yulephile, Buble is a total grinch!

Four days to Christmas, and things get worse when Jack’s ride to the airport in New York is cancelled. Rising to the occasion, show host Jimmy Fallon offers a ride so that Jack can make it home to Notting Hill, London. Only, it comes with a rider. Mistaking Jack’s ‘Amazon’ gig to be a delivery trail, Fallon packs him in a car with gifts to Seattle airport.

Since it’s Christmas time, all flights are cancelled due to the bad weather, obviously! Here, the grinch, sorry Buble, comes to the rescue — only, this time, he’s all into merry-making. Buble hitches him on a plane ride in Dave Bautista’s private jet, but before that, Buble and Jack enjoy a nice ice hockey escapade. The jet ride isn’t smooth either, and instead of Heathrow, Jack lands in Zurich.

It only gets implausible from now. Next is a bobsleigh race, a Swiss winter sport in which teams make timed runs down narrow, twisting iced tracks in a sled. Here Jack is in the company of Olympic athletes, and he somehow survives, only to land next to La Grande Odyssee. The international sled dog race with fellow actor-comedian Tom Davis is as daunting, if not more. On his last leg, Jack ends up as the train assistant ‘Ranjit’ with actor Rebel Wilson. Does he get home to his partner and daughter in time? Well, all we can say is that it ends in a huge disaster.

Darcey Zoller had a landmine of crackling celebs — right from funny Jack Whitehall, not new to comedy specials at all, to Jimmy Fallon to Daisy May Cooper. With Dave Bautista and Tom Davis thrown in the mix, it could have been one truly enchanting Christmas special.

Seems like the ‘part scripted’ segment didn’t go that well, while there is surely a battery of cross-references. On the high note, the cinematography is amazing — one enjoys the astounding snow-covered Alps. The train meandering through the magical snowscape is a visual treat. Music keeps the holiday spirit alive. But, alas, one is neither interested nor invested in Jack making it in time.

Christmas is about being joyous, kind and considerate. Sadly, nobody takes Jack’s odyssey home seriously. Most people, except the athletes and the musher (one who drives the dogsled over snow), he meets are rather mean, rude and inconsiderate. And that’s the opposite of the Christmas spirit. These sure aren’t the most wonderful times of the year on OTT.