Jingle Jangle A Christmas Journey Now Streaming on Netflix
Written By Matthew Sadowski
Forest Whitaker is a wonderful actor who is able to bring a remarkable emotional weight to his roles. In recent years, he has excelled at playing elders of authority with a lot of weight on their shoulders, whether it is in the gritty Star Wars spinoff Rogue One as an aged mercenary, the unsettled Colonel in Arrival, or the increasingly delusional dictator Idi Amin in The Last King of Scotland, for which he won an Oscar. In the new Netflix Holiday offering Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Journey, his role as an old, lonely inventor unable to escape his sorrow is right up Whitaker’s alley… except that he is in a movie called Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Journey.
Jingle Jangle tells the story of Jeronicus Jangle (Whitaker), the “greatest inventor in all the land” and owner of “Jangles and Things,” a once prospering and whimsical toy/gizmo store, now a dilapidated and dreary pawn shop. Decades earlier, his then-apprentice Gustafson (Keegan-Michael Key) stole his latest revolutionary invention, a living doll named Don Juan Diego (Ricky Martin), as well as his prized ideas book. Shattered by the betrayal, Jeronicus was unable to regain his creative magic, and his business quickly declined. Now, he reaches out to his estranged daughter Jessica (Anika Noni Rose) in hopes of regaining his inspiration before he loses his prized store. However, Jessica instead sends her own daughter, Journey (Madalen Mills), to see if a child can better warm Jeronicus’ heart.
David E. Talbert, the writer and director, gives an admirable effort in the difficult task of balancing Christmasy fun with the sadness of a broken man, but can’t quite blend them into a satisfying whole. Whitaker brings earnestness to his part, but he almost seems nervous to freak out younger viewers with too much intensity, yet he is also unwilling to risk being too silly. Instead, the majority of his lines are delivered either very softly or very stoically. This unfortunately does not match the whimsical steampunkish world that the film is set in, nor does it play well when paired with the happy, ultra-eager young Journey. While some of the elements work very well in Jingle Jangle, like Keegan-Michael Key’s wild Gustafson and the delightful Madalen Mills, the movie too often becomes weighted down by either storybook silliness, or the Jeronicus’ seriousness.
Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Journey
Directed by: David E.Talbert
Starring: Forest Whitaker, Keegan-Michael Key, Hugh Bonneville, Anika Noni Rose, Madalen Mills
2020
122 minutes
Streaming on: Netflix
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