When it comes to classic Christmas films, there are plenty: Miracle
on 34th Street, How the
Grinch Stole Christmas, A Christmas
Story, Die Hard, about 235 versions of A
Christmas Carol… But last year I stumbled upon one that’s become one of my holiday
favorites: A Very Murray Christmas.
Yeah, it’s not for
everyone, but I’ll pretty much watch Bill Murray in anything. Plus: Christmas.
The schtick is that on
Christmas Eve, Murray’s in his hotel in Manhattan, waiting to broadcast a live
show (hello? Scrooged?), which he
needs to do for the money. But a blizzard of Biblical proportions strikes,
screwing everything up. He can’t cancel, but…well, a whole lot happens
(including a power failure) and he, his crew, a wedding party, and miscellaneous
flotsam and jetsam end up in the hotel bar, doing what you might expect in a Manhattan
bar during a blizzard on Christmas Eve.
There’s drinking,
crying, fighting and singing. All the usual elements of holiday festivities.
The piece I truly love
is the ensemble’s cover of The Pogues’ “Fairytale of New York”. There’s something
about this collection odds and sods, primed by either tequila or slivovitz (or
both), coming together to sing about broken dreams, lost opportunities and old
drunks that just speaks to me.
Whaddaya think?
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