Feelgood Christmas romcoms are like school nativity plays: you can forgive a lot in return for a toasty warm festive glow. The Secret Santa Project, based on a book by Tracy Bloom and set in a London council’s accounting department, manages a brief flicker of cosy charm in places but in truth it’s bit of a Christmas clunker.
Like Richard Curtis’s Love Actually this is a film with a handful of interwoven storylines. Samantha Giles plays Diane, the grinchy head of accounts who in the tradition of London romcoms walks to work over Westminster bridge past Big Ben; she would love to see Christmas cancelled and save the council a few pounds. Her husband Leon (Mark Williams) is a panto director, and Diane suspects he’s got a thing going on with Snow White. This plot line is not a million miles from Emma Thompson’s in Love Actually, but it bungles along to a clumsy resolution lacking the poignancy of Thompson slipping off to the bedroom for a cry on Christmas Day.
At work, Diane’s number two Jerry (Barrie Ryan English) has fallen for a man he met in a coffee shop. Perky graduate trainee Jolene (Myla Carmen) attempts to sprinkle Christmas joy with her plan for secret Santa – exchanging acts of kindness instead of less-than-a-fiver novelty socks. The best performance is from ex-EastEnders actor Charlie Brooks as Stacey, a single mum whose new boyfriend is clearly a total douche.
There are a few things worth writing home about. The film nails the dynamics of an office where people have worked with each other for years and tolerate each other’s foibles with an eye-roll or side-eye. But its happy endings feel unearned and may leave a sickly feeling similar to eating three-day-old turkey leftovers on a sherry hangover.
