The Secret Santa Project review – festive romcom tries for the Love Actually style multiple story strands

Set in a London council office, this clunky Christmas comedy interweaves a handful of storylines but musters only a brief flicker of cosy charm

Feelgood Christmas romcoms are like school nativity plays: you can forgive a lot in return for a toasty warm festive glow. The Secret Santa Project, based on a book by Tracy Bloom and set in a London council’s accounting department, manages a brief flicker of cosy charm in places but in truth it’s bit of a Christmas clunker.

Like Richard Curtis’s Love Actually this is a film with a handful of interwoven storylines. Samantha Giles plays Diane, the grinchy head of accounts who in the tradition of London romcoms walks to work over Westminster bridge past Big Ben; she would love to see Christmas cancelled and save the council a few pounds. Her husband Leon (Mark Williams) is a panto director, and Diane suspects he’s got a thing going on with Snow White. This plot line is not a million miles from Emma Thompson’s in Love Actually, but it bungles along to a clumsy resolution lacking the poignancy of Thompson slipping off to the bedroom for a cry on Christmas Day.