Ties that bind

TYLER

- NAMRATA JOSHI

Thomas Taormina’s Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point begins with the adage: “For the lost, may they find their way home on Christmas Eve.”It’s a motif that holds true for almost every single one of the innumerable Christmas flicks flooding the OTT platforms this festive season. These formulaic, feelgood family films are invariably about the conversion of Santa Claus haters to staunch believers or single young men and women eventually finding their soulmates amid festival preparations. However, Taormina’s film, while focused on a large extended family, bucks the schmaltzy for the offbeat and the romantic for the real and relatable. Since its premiere in the parallel Director’s Fortnight segment at Cannes last year, it has begun finding its way into several Holiday Films watchlists, and is often described as a contemporary Christmas classic. Nothing much happens on the surface as an extended family gets together for the annual Christmas celebrations at the ancestral home in Long Island. While the rest adhere to the longstanding traditions and rituals, two teenage girls break away to mark Christmas in their own new way with a bunch of friends.