Christmas Classics at the Cottage Road Cinema
Tom Grieve, Cinema Editor
Classics at the Cottage gets a Christmas makeover this December, with a quartet of festive films lined up to get you ready for the big day.
Dan Aykroyd and Eddie Murphy open the festivities in 80s comedy classic Trading Places on Sunday 15 December. Set over Christmas in a chilly Philadelphia, John Landis’ film sees Murphy as a fast-talking huckster who swaps places with Aykroyd’s clean-cut stockbroker thanks to a bet by a couple of mean-spirited millionaires. Highly quotable, with a stellar supporting cast, this sly satire balances laughs with a lampooning of the American establishment.
Talking of mean-spirited rich men, the second film in the Cottage’s Christmas line-up is Brian Desmond Hurst’s 1951 Scrooge (Wed 18 Dec.) Featuring Alastair Sim as Charles Dickens’ eponymous anti-hero, this adaptation of A Christmas Carol will be a welcome discovery on the big screen this December.
Next is a more modern classic in the form of Nancy Meyer’s The Holiday on Sunday 22 December. Somehow the film is almost two decades old, but we know there are plenty of people out there who have been watching Cameron Diaz and Kate Winslet swap lives and countries, and fall for Jude Law and Jack Black every Christmas since 2006. Light and charming in a way that only a Nancy Meyers movie can be.
Lastly, on Christmas Eve it can only be It’s a Wonderful Life. Jimmy Stewart as George Bailey, the proprietor of a small town buildings and loan company, who learns the value of his life in this all time Christmas classic from director Frank Capra. If you haven’t seen it before, do yourself a favour and treat yourself to an early Christmas present.
