One of my first memories is of The Nutcracker and hearing those familiar chords. I come from a household obsessed with ballet, so of course. I love the music so much; the dances are enchanting; and I’m a sucker for anything festive and snowy. I’m not Christian, but I do adore holiday films. (Let it be said that we need more Jewish holiday films!) But I digress … Also, my love of The Nutcracker is only slightly trumped by my love of Keira Knightley, so of course I wanted to watch The Nutcracker and the Four Realms – she’s the Sugar Plum Fairy!! Sign. Me. Up.

This version follows young Clara after her mother’s died and has left her an egg, but it’s locked and Clara doesn’t know what’s inside. Additionally, she and her father are at odds over her refusal to engage with daily life, but Clara’s too sad to do more than invent things in the attic with her brother. Only her sister’s suggestion that their godfather might be able to open the egg convinces her at last to join her family at the dance. There, her godfather conspires to give her the key to the egg through a gift-treasure-hunt that leads Clara from the ball into the Four Realms, a magical place where holiday toys come alive. There she meets a whole host of colourful, vibrant characters who reveal to her that her mother was once queen.

This movie is so lovely and Keira Knightley as the Sugar Plum Fairy is perfection. I do feel like it went a bit too much into the ‘we need to make this an epic action/adventure film just because’ territory, when I just wanted it to be more ballet and wonder, but it was good fun overall and definitely worth a watch over the holidays!