Today, I continue to feel bummed out as my football team is again playing totally rubbish. This sort of thing shouldn’t affect me that much, but it’s January, it’s pissing down and I’m just feeling generally low. Who better to help mend my achey-breaky heart than Billy Ray Cyrus?
Christmas in Canaan is another non-romcom one, set in the 1960s rural American south and follows the relationship over a number of years between a tough white farm boy named DJ (Zak Ludwig) and smart, bookish black child Rodney (Jaishon Fisher). The lads initially clash and racism rears it ugly head, but the intervention of their families and a cute injured puppy makes them lifelong buddies.
This one examines the racism that was rife in the south at that time, though it’s all very PG, so thankfully no N words get thrown about. We do, however, see Rodney segregated on the school bus and generally picked on for being a ‘poor coloured', though he’s fast and insolent enough to give as good as he gets. DJ seems like a nice enough, if angry kid, but has learned some awful racist ways, bullying Rodney. DJ’s decent father Daniel (Cyrus) is sad to see the way his boy is going, remarking that he “didn’t raise my boy to be no bigot!”
Cyrus’ character is a refreshing reminder that not all white folks back then were necessarily prejudiced. After the boys fight, their families force them to hang out together and thereby hopefully learn a thing or two. It’s fun to watch these two slowly warm to each other and bond over the injured pup they nurse back to health. Fisher, in particular, gives an impressive, funny, raw child performance.
As we wave goodbye to intolerant Trump, this feels like just the sort of film the world needs, a tale of different cultures working together, rather than sowing seeds of division. It’s also neat to see a film about racism told from a child’s perspective, highlighting that prejudice is something that can be drilled into us, rather than present in us from birth. We shouldn’t have to look to our children to teach us how to be decent – let’s all just play together! It’s a smart, relevant movie but, annoyingly, not that Christmassy.
The use of ‘Christmas’ in the title feels like a con, as this is a tale of a friendship over many years. However, the festive season is crucial to the plot, with Rodney receiving a typewriter from DJ’s family for Christmas that totally changes his life.
The film has a nice message, but it’s ultimately all rather sanitised and dull, soundtracked by some pretty sucky country music. Still, this feels like the kind of movie that we should be showing to our children now, before it’s too late.
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