Ah, Tom really was boozing at this point. Forget the Narnia affectations of the comedy gag in the title. Anyway it would be funnier if it was the Lion In Winter And The Garderobe. Instead we have a really rather austere period piece which yet again has that most tenuous link to Christmas: the word Winter.
Lord though, what a film. This is Katherine Hepburn eating, chewing and spitting out some of the finest actors of a younger generation and if it resembles anything, it is those large family get-together’s which soon become nasty seething pits of undisguised hate. There are reasons why some families do not get on that well, and there are reasons why they do not get together that often. Weddings, funerals and Christmas. Christmas being the one where we are all supposed to be nice to each other. Admittedly I have never done a family Christmas where I have tried to bump off my siblings for succession, but there is often a matriach playing all and sundry against each other. With a Christmas pudding tied in, The Lion In Winter could well be an accurate representation of many a family hell.