'Tis The Season To See Some Lights And "The Man Who Invented Christmas"

      Last Friday night Tom, myself, and our good friends Kevin and Barb went on a Christmas-seeking excursion.

     And while there are many Christmas-inducing venues to be found in Columbus, Ohio,

...such as Wildlights at the Columbus Zoo,

...The Village Lights in German Village,

....Gardens Aglow at the Franklin Park Conservatory,

...and the Scioto Mile, to name but a few,

...we opted to seek out some Christmas spirit at Easton Town Center, which we found all seasonably lit up and decked out,

...both inside,

...and outside.

     However we decided before taking in the lights and sights to start off the evening at the Easton AMC where we saw the movie "The Man Who Invented Christmas."

...which, in spite of the schmaltzy and somewhat misleading title, was a really great film.
     Or so thought I.
     The movie tells the story of a moment in the life of Charles Dickens when, following  the fame and fortune he achieved from the publication of "Oliver Twist," Dickens had out-spent his income, written three commercial flops and subsequently found himself drowning in debt and on the verge of financial ruin, which, in 19th Century London, could well send a man and his family to one of that city's notorious workhouse prisons.
      In the film we see a portrait of Charles Dickens, gripped by writer's block and the demons that still haunted him from his childhood of poverty, hunger and as a child laborer in a sweatshop boot-blacking company, struggling to produce another marketable book.

     The obvious irony at play is that Charles Dickens, now a world-famous author for his story of wretched poverty in London's orphanages and workhouses, stares in the face the possibility that he and his family could end up in the same straits as the suffering characters  in his novel.

     The movie takes on the feel of a psychological thriller as Dickens, under the gun by publishers, printers, book artists and creditors, paces his office, trolls the streets of London, and wracks his brain searching for inspiration, characters and the bits and pieces of the powerfully moving  story of  greed, poverty, and redemption that eventually becomes "A Christmas Carol."

       After the movie, feeling inspired and uplifted (well, at least I was), we strolled around Easton,

    ...enjoying the magical displays,

...and talking about the movie (at least I was).   
        "I think you liked that movie the best of us all," said Tom.
        Well, I did love the movie.

         The scenes of Victorian London,  wealth and poverty side-by-side,

...the scenes from Charles' Dickens' childhood and of his life as a father, husband and dutiful son in a large, loving but often chaotic family, the chaos usually of his own making.

       I loved that the character of cold-hearted, penny-pinching Scrooge was the diametric opposite of Dickens, who was an extravagant spender not only on himself but on charitable causes as well, feeling a need to give money to every beggar on the streets of London.

   But I mostly loved the scenes of Charles Dickens' writing life, his habit of writing down interesting names he'd hear in passing,

...how the characters in his head became so real that he could see and talk to them,  how they became an ever-present part of his life, following him around wherever he went,

...and how the world of stories and characters playing out inside his head was constantly being interrupted by the demands of family life and life in general.
        All things that I could identify with, as can all writers.
       My favorite line from the movie was from Dickens, crying out in frustration, "My characters won't do what I want them to do!" 
         Neither will mine.    

     Alas, one doesn't have to be a Charles Dickens to struggle with demons, recalcitrant characters and writer's block.

     Looking for something to do tomorrow, Saturday, December 16 at 10 am?

     Tune into the yourbookmybook
podcast of my interview with Indian author Sonnal Pardiwala
at
www.yourbookmybook.com