‘R Xmas (2001) Full Review

Film Scene Investigation

Here’s my review of the film ‘R Xmas.   Thanks for watching and please subscribe. New content dropping every week.   For Exclusive Content:  https://www.patreon.com/filmsceneinvestigation   Rumble:  https://www.rumble.com/filmsceneinvestigations   Odysee:  https://odysee.com/@filmsceneinvestigation:e   Daily Motion:  https://www.dailymotion.com/Filmsceneinvestigation   Help Support Me At:  https://www.PayPal.me/beaucarter91

Transcript

00:00hey guys how's it going it's me beau here on the film scene investigation channel thank you so much

00:19for checking out this video in today's review i'm going to be taking a look at the 2001 crime drama

00:28our christmas so this movie was directed by the great abel ferrara a filmmaker who i hold in high

00:39regard and as many of you may know i've reviewed several of his films on this channel when it comes

00:47to this movie in particular i saw it a few years ago and yeah i've been meaning to review it ever

00:54since it is a christmas movie and probably one of the last abel ferrara movies that i really enjoyed

01:02before we get into the review guys if you haven't already please do consider subscribing to the

01:08channel it really does mean a lot and all the support is greatly appreciated so our christmas

01:15from december 2001 was a crime drama that centered on a couple from new york city who sold cocaine

01:24for a living the husband played by actor lilo brancato and the wife played by dreia de mateo

01:32were very successful drug dealers who were making deals and bringing in a lot of money they were

01:40basically living a double life you know on the outside they were this loving couple with a young

01:48child and yeah you know everything seemed to be all perfect you know fine and dandy but of course

01:55behind closed doors there were just a pair of sneaky drug dealers what was quite interesting about this

02:02whole setup was the fact that this couple they weren't alone no no their family knew all about their

02:09illegal activities and supported it you know it was very much a family business the story picked up

02:19in december of 1993 where the couple were celebrating the seasonal festivities with their young child

02:28we saw them end up having this ride on a horse and carriage in the middle of new york city and of

02:35course you know that wasn't cheap but money was no object to them we saw the inner workings of their

02:44whole operation bagging cutting up the powder you know distributing it was quite a system they had in

02:53place and it was you know clear from the get-go that the husband was the cool calm collected one

03:01whereas the wife played by di mateo she was a uh she was a hothead for sure i guess in some ways

03:10it could be argued that the wife was very pragmatic you know she always looked ahead always very cautious

03:19and wanted to quash any issues right there and then the wife was very much the aggressor

03:28while the husband you know was the laid-back chilled out guy that he was so in a way they

03:35you know it was the perfect counterbalance anyways things escalated quickly when on christmas eve

03:43the husband was ambushed in the street and kidnapped by a group of men the husband had planned to meet his

03:51friend trey and then suddenly out of nowhere he was abducted they threw him to the ground

03:57they had a gun you know to his face yeah these guys weren't messing around and clearly this was

04:05not a random attack no this was targeted for sure one of the kidnappers who was played by ice tea

04:12then confronted the wife and told her what happened to her husband he even showed her the husband's id

04:19so obviously the wife knew that it was legit this guy wanted money he wanted a cash payment real quick

04:28and if the wife wasn't gonna provide it well that was the end for the husband of course the wife was

04:37completely caught off guard by this i mean she was planning to celebrate christmas with her family

04:43then suddenly she has to deal with her husband's abduction the kidnapper wasn't specific exactly on

04:51how much he actually wanted he just ended up ushering the wife away and waited for her to return with

04:58some cash you see this group these kidnappers they had targeted this couple they knew everything

05:06about them more importantly they knew that this couple had money they wanted it the wife was backed

05:14in to a corner she had no other option really so she decided to start scrambling for cash cooling up

05:22family members you know going to meet friends doing everything she could to try and rescue her husband

05:28it was a real struggle for sure there's no doubt about that but you know the wife loved her husband

05:35and there was no way that she was going to give up on him the final part of the movie saw the wife

05:41gather enough money up to pay off the group and see her husband return safe and sound it was not easy

05:49trying to find such large amounts of cash in such a short amount of time but the wife pulled it off

05:57once they reunited of course they were happy to see each other but obviously they were very

06:05cautious about what to do next i mean why exactly did this group target them specifically the couple

06:12had no personal beef with anyone so it wasn't like there was some vendetta or bounty over their heads

06:19it just didn't make sense but in one of the last scenes in the film it was revealed that these group of

06:28kidnappers who abducted the husband they weren't street thugs or criminals they were actually corrupt

06:35cops on the take they had posed as criminals hiding their identity in order for them to get involved with

06:46you know the street action and of course that was the reason why the couple ended up being targeted

06:52because they were drug dealers they were very successful drug dealers and they were a prime target

06:59to be exploited by the cops so with this movie it was clear to me that the director abel ferrara

07:08tried to humanize the drug dealers within the story and you know explore their lives which

07:14certainly was an interesting idea we saw how the couple's illegal activities intertwined with their family

07:22life and how they basically dealt with that on a day-to-day basis in so many of ferrara's films

07:29very rarely did we ever get any kind of backstory to these drug dealer characters that featured i mean

07:37a great example of this would be zoe lund who appeared in 1992's bad lieutenant zoe appeared in the film

07:47very briefly i think she only had maybe like two scenes and yeah i mean she remained a mystery i mean

07:55we never got to know her character whereas in this film our christmas the couple you know we got to know

08:02them their family their child and also got to know why they did it in the first place all of that

08:09gave us the audience a much deeper insight into who these characters were and for me that was very

08:18refreshing to see if you're like me and you've seen a ton of abel ferrara's work over the years

08:25then you would have noticed the heavy use of catholic iconography and so with that said the fact that abel

08:34ferrara ended up actually making a christmas movie you know it actually seems quite fitting once again

08:41the religious undertones were present in our christmas and as a man of faith it was great to

08:49see that incorporated before i discuss the performances i did want to mention the film's opening

08:56sequence where we saw these groups of children dressed up in victorian costume handing out

09:03presence to one another now all of this turned out to be a swerve but i generally thought that i was

09:10watching the wrong movie for a second i mean it just seems so out of left field for an abel ferrara

09:17movie you had the kids you had the costumes you had the presence i mean it was just the complete

09:24contrast to what you'd expect from a director like abel ferrara so yeah a pretty inventive title

09:33sequence in terms of the performances i have to say that dreya di mateo completely stole the show

09:41as a woman who was you know panicking trying her best to rescue her husband from a group of corrupt

09:48cops you really felt the character's desperation as she was scrambling around trying to find as much

09:55money as possible to you know pay the ransom and yeah i mean overall i was uh just thoroughly impressed

10:02with what i saw from her there's no doubt that she carried the movie and without her involvement

10:10i really feel that uh our christmas would have seriously lacked i mean the actress is such a

10:18dynamic performer with her ferocity and vulnerability now she was able to even make the mundane moments

10:27seem tense now i read online that the director abel ferrara ended up watching an episode of the

10:35sopranos and seeing dreya di mateo for the first time after he saw her he wanted to work with her

10:42immediately he made a real effort to cast her because he knew that she was a real talent and

10:49could deliver a great performance which she did having said all that i did feel that the script at

10:55times was pretty weak so some of the characters dialogue i didn't really care for but overall i

11:03thought di mateo did a great job of the material she had been given when it comes to the actor lilo

11:09brancato i thought overall he certainly looked the part playing the shady drug dealer husband and uh

11:17yeah he was he was okay his character of course had a much more laid-back demeanor compared to his wife

11:27and yeah like i said it worked in terms of the counterbalance between the two

11:33but overall i can't really say that i was all that impressed

11:39whereas di mateo was the clear standout brancato just was kind of there and uh yeah it wasn't bad

11:49but it wasn't special either while the husband remained quite stoic throughout the entire film

11:57i thought the actor lilo brancato at times was quite wooden and i cut kind of one-dimensional

12:06i also found that the actor didn't really emote not very much and so with that we were kind of left

12:15looking at his gormless face as we all know storytelling can be presented very well through

12:23you know the character's facial expressions but when an actor doesn't do that

12:30you know it's kind of hard to care about them and you know get invested in their story as for the

12:37chemistry between him and di mateo i thought it was quite believable they seemed like a couple that

12:46generally cared for each other but when it comes to the sexual chemistry to me it just it just wasn't

12:54there it seemed actually it seemed more like they were like siblings you know they felt like family

13:00they felt like people that cared for one another but um in terms of relationship you know it wasn't

13:08that believable ice t of course showed up as the kidnapper and yeah for the most part his performance

13:17was pretty memorable but somewhat limited as well it is worth noting that of course this man

13:26is a rapper and has pretty much promoted himself as being this gangster you know throughout his entire

13:35career so for ist to come on set and portray you know a criminal thug you know it weren't much of a

13:44stretch now initially when i watched this film i really did not like the ist characterization

13:51for me it felt very forced and yeah like one minute the guy was demanding money the next he was asking

14:01for the wife's backstory it was just all over the place you know very disjointed and it actually felt

14:11kind of ad-libbed as well it was only after seeing the reveal at the end that ist and all these kidnappers

14:19this group of men they were actually corrupt cops only then did it make sense because ultimately this

14:27ist character he was a cop posing as a criminal no wonder his dialogue felt kind of off and disjointed

14:37because ultimately he was you know trying his best to convince the wife that he was a dangerous man

14:45not just a cop on the take so yeah knowing that and then kind of re-evaluating the performance

14:54it did make sense and overall i thought uh yeah iced tea was uh pretty good and so dislikes for our

15:03christmas from 2001 my biggest dislike for the film would have to be the overall execution of the story

15:12as to me many times it felt very very aimless it was a very character-driven film and you know that

15:24wasn't a bad thing but i did go into the film expecting to see a lot more action you know something

15:31that you'd expect to see in a crime drama there were also a number of scenes in the film that just

15:38dragged on and didn't really go anywhere a good example of this would actually be the ending of

15:46the film where we saw the husband at this dinner party with his wife and their friends um one moment

15:53the husband you know got up on stage and started singing and yeah i mean okay but it didn't go

16:02anywhere given there was suddenly so much focus on the husband serenading his wife in front of everyone

16:10i kind of half expected to you know see maybe a shootout or explosion take place i mean something

16:17but we didn't get that he just continued to sing and then very slowly the credits rolled i mean it

16:24okay and you know this happened quite a lot in the film to the point where it actually made me question

16:32whether ferrara had actually filmed enough footage because a lot of this just seemed like filler you

16:39know like oh i need to meet a certain runtime let's just drag out these scenes for next a couple of

16:44minutes if you make a movie and it's less than 90 minutes yet it features a bunch of scenes that

16:53don't really go anywhere and just linger on then you know that to me it indicates to me that there

17:01wasn't much of a story to begin with now i did actually read online that supposedly the actor john

17:09leguizamo was originally cast to play the husband and at the last minute he pulled out i don't know if

17:18that is actually true that's just what i read online so take it with a pinch of salt but it would explain

17:25some of the more kind of random moments you know some of the issues that this film had all i can say is

17:32it was unfocused at times and that was a letdown and so ratings for our christmas from 2001

17:44i'm going to be rating this film a solid 5 out of 10. our christmas was an intriguing crime drama set

17:54in the holiday season where we saw a bunch of corrupt cops steal some money for some drug dealers

18:02the director abel ferrara was able to insert a few different aspects within the 90 minutes that

18:11you know kept me interested but it still felt somewhat fragmented with all of that said our

18:19christmas was one of the last abel ferrara movies that i really did enjoy and with this film you did get

18:28a lot of the kind of gritty vibe that you obviously associate with ferrara's earlier work you know

18:35ferrara is a brilliant filmmaker i still hold him in high regard and yeah i'll still check out his

18:44future films if he you know continues to make them but it's obvious that he has changed over the years

18:51and his later work it lacks the intensity that we saw in his earlier films in the wider context

19:01our christmas is one of the more weaker entries in his filmography as i said it was kind of aimless

19:09and fragmented but with that said i still thoroughly enjoyed it a lot more than some of ferrara's more

19:17recent works like tomaso and serbia if you've seen our christmas then please let me know your thoughts

19:25and memories in the comment section below for all those out there who have not seen this one if

19:32you're an abel ferrara fan then absolutely this is a must watch absolutely and if you're a fan of

19:40dreia di mateo i think you'll also enjoy it too and yes it is a christmas film it can't be denied

19:48so yeah um in terms of christmas films or should i say kind of unconventional christmas films like

19:55die hard batman returns eyes wide sharp um yeah this movie our christmas would certainly fall into

20:03that category and well that is all from me today guys i do hope you've enjoyed this review of our

20:11christmas from december 2001 i'll be back next week with another cult movie review if you like what i do

20:19here please do consider subscribing to the channel it does mean a lot and of course guys you take care

20:25right

20:28ATTBC

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