A Christmas Gift from Bob

November 25, 2020

In family film, Review, Theatrical, This Week by Dov KornitsLeave a Comment

...the pointy bits have been smoothed down somewhat into a more family orientated flick...
John Noonan
Year: 2020
Rating: PG
Director: Charles Martin Smith
Cast:

Luke Treadaway, Anna Wilson-Jones, Bob the Cat

Distributor: Rialto
Released: December 3, 2020
Running Time: 92 minutes
Worth: $14.00

FilmInk rates movies out of $20 — the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth

…the pointy bits have been smoothed down somewhat into a more family orientated flick…

A Christmas Gift from Bob is the sequel to 2016’s A Street Cat Named Bob, the biographical drama about busker turned author, James Bowen and  the bond he shared with a stray cat he saved and christened Bob. After Twin Peaks’ Bob no less. That film saw the homeless Bowen (Luke Treadaway) roaming the streets of London with Bob (played by Bob himself) perched on his shoulders like a furry parrot, before kicking his addiction and being offered to write about his life with the feline. It certainly wasn’t without its charm and this critic defies anyone to have left the cinema with a dry eye.

For the sequel, Bowen (Treadaway again) has been contracted to write another Bob book and he just can’t fathom where to begin. After meeting another busker, who is down on his luck, Bowen decides to tell him about the last Christmas he and Bob spent on the streets. Yep, you can probably guess how this dovetails into our hero’s bout of writer’s block, but don’t let that overly cloud your judgement.

Whilst the original wasn’t exactly a gritty expo of homelessness in the UK, it did tackle subjects like Bowen’s addiction head on. Here, the pointy bits have been smoothed down somewhat into a more family orientated flick. Bowen’s mental health, predominant in Street Cat, is given a cursory glance before we concentrate on the important stuff: namely Bob.

Played once again by Bob (and couple of stunt cats), the ginger tom is seen getting into mischief and being made to look like an absolute kipper in a Santa’s hat and cape. Along the way, there’s moustache twirling animal welfare officers and shifty looking pollies looking for a decent photo op.

It’s certainly not a picture of London painted in the same shades of innocence as, say, Paddington, but it manages the same trick of burrowing through your years of compressed cynicism with a diamond tipped drill of joy. And while there’s a little bit of kitty trauma in the second act, your little ones need not fear. This isn’t the opening scene of Red Dog. Yes, the film says, good things happen to bad people. However, good things happen too. And they’re more likely to happen if we all help each other out once in a while.

Sure, this will sound like a sickly treat to a number of people. Postcard portrayals of London are not to everyone’s taste and the argument could be made that the film does paddle in the shallow waters of poverty porn. However, if you can’t exude some joy out of listening to a man singing feline themed Christmas carols in Covent Gardens, then there’s not much else that can be done for you.

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