‘Tinsel Town’ Review: Kiefer Sutherland Stars in Holiday Comedy

It’s that time of year again. The time of year when you can’t walk into a multiplex or turn on your television (especially the Hallmark Channel) without encountering a movie determined to make you feel good about the holidays. It can all make you feel as Scrooge-like as washed-up Hollywood action movie star Brad Mac, the protagonist in Chris Foggin’s new addition to the overcrowded genre. It’s no spoiler to reveal that by the end of Tinsel Town (a cute punning title), Brad has learned to embrace the holiday, even if it means having to appear in a British pantomime show.

Brad is played by Kiefer Sutherland, displaying an admirable willingness to make fun of the fact that his days as Jack Bauer on 24 are long behind him (at least until the next reboot). In the best Scrooge tradition, Brad — a three-time Razzie Award nominee who at the story’s beginning is filming the seventh installment of his cheesy action movie series Killing Time — is an obnoxious blowhard who hits on his married co-star and refuses to do his own stunts.

He quickly gets his comeuppance when he’s informed that the studio has nixed future installments of the franchise and that he’s basically become unemployable because he’s too difficult. His beleaguered agent says the only job available is a theater role in England, so Brad reluctantly makes the trek across the pond.

Greeted by his cheerful driver Nigel (Mawaan Rizwan) and informed that they’re headed to the Savoy, Brad settles down for a nap in the car. When he wakes up, he discovers that he’s not in London but rather the small town of Stoneford, three hours away. He’s not staying at the famous Savoy Hotel, but rather the Savoy Guest House that’s currently without running water. And the role he’s about to take on is Buttons in a pantomime production of Cinderella.

Just a few minutes in, it’s obvious that Tinsel Town requires a significant suspension of disbelief. But if you’re in the right frame of mind, you’ll just go with it. Nearly everything that occurs next proves thoroughly predictable, from Brad’s outrage at his current predicament to his hostility toward the cast and crew working on the show to his disengaged relationship with his young daughter (Matilda Firth), who’s now living with her remarried mother (Alice Eve) in London.

Along the way, however, Foggin and his quartet of screenwriters deliver plenty of entertainment. It’s not surprising, considering that the director and several of the scribes were previously responsible for such similarly sweet British comedies as Bank of Dave and Fisherman’s Friends.

It also helps considerably that the cast includes more than a few ringers, including Rebel Wilson as Jill, the show’s choreographer; Derek Jacobi as the stage door manager who used to be a panto star himself; and stage legend and three-time Olivier Award winner Maria Friedman as the actress playing the Fairy Godmother. Jacobi in particular gets the chance to shine, with a poignant monologue in which his character talks tenderly about his deceased husband.

The plotting becomes needlessly complicated at times, such as with Jack becoming a local hero after foiling a burglary, and later disgracing himself with a drunken tirade at a Christmas tree lighting ceremony, which leads to him being arrested and put on trial. There are subplots involving Jill’s contentious relationship with her bullying ex-husband (Danny Dyer) and the burgeoning romance between the panto’s Prince Charming (Lucien Laviscount, Emily in Paris) and Cinderella (Savannah Lee Smith, Gossip Girl). By the time the film ends with a spirited ensemble rendition of Katy Perry’s “Roar,” you may feel as overstuffed as if you’d gorged at a Christmas banquet. 

There are plenty of amusing moments involving the colorful townspeople and the central character’s fish-out-of-water unease in his new situations. But Tinsel Town is most effective when concentrating on Brad’s inevitable heartwarming transformation from arrogant movie star to gleeful member of the panto’s hardworking ensemble, and his newfound maturity in terms of being a loving father to his daughter. Sutherland makes it all work, delivering a thoroughly winning performance that makes you buy into the overall hokum.