The Man Who Invented Christmas

The Man Who Invented Christmas (2017) is a historical drama with a comic streak that you can watch online on iFILM. Dan Stevens plays Charles Dickens, and Christopher Plummer shows up as a grouchy Scrooge who springs to life inside the writer's own head.

The story picks up in the autumn after three flops have left Dickens scrambling for a hit that will save both his name and his bank account. He gives himself six weeks, pays the printing bill out of his own thinning purse, and watches the characters he's dreaming up wander into his study to argue with him. The film traces how childhood wounds, overheard names and the noise of London streets fed into the most famous holiday tale ever written. Director Bharat Nalluri stages it as a fever of creation, where invention and memory keep trading places.

The back-and-forth between Stevens and Plummer is the real treat here, an author and his creation needling and rescuing each other by turns. It's a warm, smart family watch for December, especially if you enjoy stories about how books actually get made. Stream The Man Who Invented Christmas (2017) online on iFILM.