Disney's lavish festive treat is the kind of family movie to be watched snuggled up on the sofa with a box of chocolates around Christmas time. As a film, it falls somewhere between the recent Alice and Narnia movies: huge-scale fantasy, abundant SFX, sumptuous detail and a basic but effective emotional through-story. Quite how much of Hallstrom's original shoot remains is unclear, but there is little indication of how the story might have changed. Performances are variable, but there is good work by Mackenzie Foy as our feisty antagonist, Matthew Macfadyen gives a touching performance as the grieving father, Omid Djalili and Jack Whitehall are good value as comedy guards, and Keira Knightley is unexpectedly remarkable infectious fun as Sugar Plum. A couple of token ballet sequences are staged very well, and whilst Nutcracker proves to be as substantial as a marshmallow, it is an acceptable Christmas entertainment.
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