“Reviving Christmas” on Netflix: Is it worth watching the comedy with Mauricio Ochmann? | REVIEW

Released a whopping 22 years ago, “Family Man” was a drama starring Jack Campbell, a successful financial broker who, self-absorbed in his selfishness and desire to destroy everything that comes his way, put aside the most simple: enjoy life. Sure, until one day he came across Cash, a humble self-service salesman who put a spell on him. The next day, the character played by the then ultra-popular Nicolas Cage, woke up as one more member of the American middle class.

Surprised by his new life as a tire salesman, Campbell made an obvious attempt to recapture his old, well-to-do life. He left his former bosses and co-workers shocked, so he managed to get his ‘old’ job back, but he did not count on the members of that new side of his life turning their backs on him: his wife, his two children of him and a beautiful dog. Nobody wanted to leave their usual house to go live in the midst of luxuries. Ultimately, happiness was anything but driving a Rolls Royce or pouring dollars into your bank account.

From its conception, “Family Guy” was an interesting film. We had an unbeatable representative of the capitalist system crashing – thanks to a spell, of course – with the reality that hundreds of people lived to whom he often never looked. The experience has some similarities (and also differences) with a Mexican film that has just been released on Netflix. Is about “reliving christmas”, a story in which the popular Mauricio Ochmann plays Chuy, a middle-class family man who, having had the bad luck of being born on December 24, suffers year after year because no one remembers his name day.

But that’s not enough to outline Chuy’s life. He has a devoted wife (Daniela/Ana Brenda Contreras), two children, and a large family of parents, siblings, and uncles. Everyone keeps the habit of meeting on the 24th for dinner and receiving Christmas in a way that any ‘Grinch’ around the planet would hate.

This is when the problems begin, because the protagonist of our film hates Christmas since, coinciding with his birthday, it causes everyone to put it aside. “Christmas is encajoismo, parasitism, stretched manism of all of you,” he tells his family very annoyed in the middle of dinner.

Like Jack Campbell, Chuy also has a revealing moment. It happens when, after arguing with his family, he goes to a bar. Here a fairy godmother (Manu Nna) appears who, through a spell, seeks to show him the true meaning of a celebration like Christmas.

After a brief character introduction, “reliving christmas” shows us how, day by day, Chuy gets up and always turns out to be December 24. Almost two thirds of the duration of the film will have Ochmann giving life to a renegade who loses his temper easily, so he can never fulfill what the fairy godmother assigned him to end the spell.

Although Chuy’s resource first failing in the fairy godmother’s request to change and then going to rebuke her in exasperation might seem redundant (at times it seems that we are facing a sweet loop), this manages to be balanced with an interesting interpretation of Ochman. Definitely, the actor born in 1977 has his best moments on the screen when he must deny anything and tell a few truths to anyone who crosses his path. In short: an enemy of hypocrisy.

Although linked by the timing of the spell, “Family Guy” and “reliving christmasThey have several differences. The first tells an almost linear story. Jack Campbell goes from denial to adjustment and even love for the children he supposedly had with his beautiful ex-college classmate (Kate Reynolds / Téa Leoni). Perhaps the opposite occurs with the character played by Ochmann. Although in physical appearance all the characters in the Netflix movie age, there always ends up being a kind of ‘reset’. There are almost never opportunities for Chuy to adjust to his new life, much less for him to reconsider the true meaning of Christmas.

Another difference could well be the role of the protagonist’s partner. In “Family Man” Téa Leoni steals the show with tenderness, sensuality, but also with an incomparable understanding towards her “unrecognizable” husband who has come to her less. From the side of “reliving christmas“What would be appropriate to say is that Daniela’s role seems somewhat reduced. Except in the final section of the film, her participation is reduced to two or perhaps three sentences per scene.

As the years go by and the spell does not disappear, Chuy ends up understanding the signs that his wife and children left him: she wants to get a divorce, the daughter does not want to talk to her anymore and the son wants to reveal something about their privacy, but his father does not listen to them. . The question arises here: will it be too late to recover them on December 28?

“reliving christmas” is a correct movie. Away at times from the drama that was “Family Man”, it has its best moments in the clumsiness that Chuy utters every time he goes furious to the mall in search of the fairy godmother who changed everything. But that’s not all, Ochmann also responds with great solvency when he tries to show himself broken at the impossibility of resuming his old life.

Will this be enough for our protagonist to finally understand what Christmas and true family love are? In the vast universe of Christmas movies that we can currently find streaming, this film directed by Mark Alazraki –at times comic, at times dramatic and at times even musical– has more arguments for than against, for which its viewing ensures, At the very least, a good moment in front of the screen.

RELIVING CHRISTMAS/ NETFLIX

Director: Mark Alazraki

Cast: Mauricio Ochmann, Ana Brenda Contreras, Manu Nna

Synopsis: Being haunted, the grumpy Chuy wakes up a year later and realizes that he is doomed to repeat Christmas Day, over and over again.

Duration: 100 minutes.