The Christmas Chronicles: Part Two (2020)

The Christmas Chronicles: Part Two arrives as a Netflix sequel with Chris Columbus at the helm, which is to say it is a film assembled from warm parts that never quite cohere into a single memorable object. Kurt Russell returns as Santa, Goldie Hawn returns as Mrs. Claus, and the plot involves a disgruntled elf named Belsnickel, a stolen star, a wormhole, and a detour to 1990 Boston. The enterprise is genial to a fault. It wants nothing more than to fill a living room with seasonal comfort, and it mostly succeeds.

On the matter of representation, the production deserves a measured nod. Jahzir Bruno occupies a central role as Jack, Tyrese Gibson and Darlene Love appear in support, and Julian Dennison, a Māori actor, plays the aggrieved Belsnickel. None of this is announced or underlined. The film simply casts a multiracial ensemble and moves on, which is a quieter approach than the era's louder tendencies. Darby Camp's Kate drives the narrative, and Mrs. Claus heals a wounded reindeer and throws an explosive gingerbread cookie at a pursuing sleigh. Female capability is present, though it is the ordinary capability of a family adventure, not a manifesto.

The moral instruction is gentle. Kate learns to accept her mother's new boyfriend; Jack learns something about courage; the audience is reminded that Christmas spirit matters. The lessons are folded into the action, never delivered from a pulpit. The film declines to engage with nearly everything else. There is no climate anxiety, no class resentment, no examination of the body, no neurodivergent interiority, no reconsideration of the historical record. The Saint Nicholas prologue in Turkey is hagiography, not revision. This is a sequel content to be a sequel, and there is a certain honesty in that.