A Christmas Karen: Review

21st November 2022

Karen (Michelle Simms) is entitled, middle aged and white. She’s constantly checking on what her neighbours are doing, especially those who aren’t white, and if she feels inconvenienced in the slightest way then she’ll want to see your manager. Karen has a lot to learn about how to treat people and if she doesn’t stop going down this route, then she’s going to be in serious trouble.

Then one night, her old boss Jackie (Meghan Colleen Moroney) comes to visit. The only trouble is that Jackie is dead and she’s come to warn Karen that if she doesn’t change her ways then her spirit is destined to wander the earth (or her immediate neighbourhood) for eternity.

She tells Karen that in the space of one night that three ghosts will come to visit her to try and get her to open her eyes and make her life better, not just for herself, but for others as well. So, the ghosts of Christmas past (Rolin Alexis), present (Leyla Lawrence) and future (Lee Karlinsky) all come to show Karen her life and to reveal her selfish ways.

A Christmas Karen is a comedy based on, you guessed it, A Christmas Carol. Around the holidays there are plenty of films like this and many of them try to evoke the feeling that Charles Dickens’ original tale did.

However, many of them are cheap and lazy cash grabs which try to change up the formula so much that it forgets what makes it such a good story.

A Christmas Karen manages to buck this trend though because although the story is brought right up to date and the production doesn’t have the budget for an English Victorian era story, it feels as relevant now as it ever was. Everybody must know a Karen of some sorts and if you don’t and want to complain about this kind of film then you’re probably the Karen yourself.

With a great performance from Simms in the title role and a sharp, funny script written by Jon Binkowski, A Christmas Karen may be that Christmas tradition which you go back to so that it can remind you what it’s really all about.

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