Written and directed by British filmmaker Gurinder Chadha (Bend It Like Beckham, Blinded by the Light), Christmas Karma is a unique, exuberant but patchily executed take on one of the greatest Christmas stories of all time - Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol.
Whether or not you think the world needs a musical update on A Christmas Carol will dictate your need to shell out on cinema tickets for this one.
The message of kindness, generosity and inclusion in Dickens' 1843 novella remains as relevant now as ever, and Chadha, drawing on her Indian heritage, has given the tale a contemporary twist.
Set in modern-day London, Mr Sood (played by The Big Bang Theory's Kunal Nayyar), the film's Scrooge equivalent, is an immensely wealthy British-Indian businessman whose riches have made him hardened and heartless.
His backstory is one of the film's most successful twists on the story. As a child, his family was expelled from Uganda during Idi Amin's regime and forced to come to the UK, only to meet horrendous racial abuse in their newfound home. He becomes obsessed with accumulating money as a means of building social status, in the process alienating himself from his first love.
The present-day Sood is irascible and isolated. After he callously fires his staff on Christmas Eve, he is visited by the ghost of his former business partner Jacob Marley, depicted by a questionably CGI'ed Hugh Bonneville, and the ghosts of Christmas past, present, and future, played by Eva Longoria, Billy Porter, and Boy George. They bring him on a journey to confront his demons and teach him some valuable lessons.
And then of course there's Sood's diligent, openhearted employee Bob Cratchit (Leo Suter), who has a big, loving family with his wife Mary Cratchit (Pixie Lott).
Unless you have a heart of stone, you'll find yourself moved by the plight of poorly Tiny Tim, even if they somewhat perplexingly live in a quaint, pastel-coloured terrace in Notting Hill.
Danny Dyer pops up as a singing cab driver; there's an eclectic range of new and old musical numbers, and it's persistently festive throughout.
A mid-November release date for a film this unabashedly Christmassy is a bit jarring, and despite its timely message and crowd-pleasing efforts, it's safe to say this won't be for everyone.
