The Man Who Invented Christmas (2017)

Charles Dickens is played by Dan Stevens, who has two things going for him in my book.  The first is that he had a major role in Downton Abbey, which I loved so much I have offered to watch again if my spouse decides he wants to catch up on the major cultural phenomenon that it is.  Secondly, he was a judge one year for the Booker Prize, which is definitely my favorite book award, and the job requires that he read some 250 plus books ( which for me would be just about a full time job for a year). 
The year is 1843 and Dickens is in a commercial slump—his previous three novels have found little favor with the buying public—and he is in need of money in order to help support himself, his loyal wife Catherine, their four children (with a fifth on the way) and an expensive home renovation. While casting about for ideas for a new book, he takes inspiration from his new maid (Anna Murphy), whose literary tastes are of a somewhat lurid bent, and who mentions to him a folk tale about mysterious spirits being revived at Christmastime. This sparks something in Dickens and he decides that he will write and self-publish his own holiday-themed ghost story in time for Christmas as a way of replenishing his coffers. There is one little hitch to this endeavor—Christmas is about six weeks away and to miss that immovable deadline would be disastrous.  This is a somewhat staged story, which ends up being a retelling of A Christmas Carol, but I enjoyed the costumes, the settings, and the inspirations for Dickens novels in his everyday life.