The countdown to Christmas unofficially kicked off in October, when I heard “All I Want for Christmas Is You” while hunting for Halloween candy at CVS. But now that Thanksgiving has come and gone, and so has your waistline after eating a third helping of stuffing, it’s officially time to get excited for the Most Wonderful Time of the Year: Hanukkah! But Christmas is pretty cool, too.
In 2015, clothing brand H&M hired Katy Perry for their annual holiday commercial; this year, they tapped Wes Anderson and Adrien Brody in what’s basically a sequel to The Darjeeling Limited, minus the drowning children.
“Come Together” is everything you either love or hate about Anderson as a director and writer — it’s whimsical and symmetrical and delightful and timeless and, of course, there’s a great song, “Happy Xmas (War Is Over)” by John Lennon and Yoko Ono. At one point, the train conductor, played by Brody, says, “My assistant porter Fritz and I will be serving a small complimentary Christmas brunch including chocolate flavored hot beverage with whipped topping in the cafeteria section in the rear of the coach starting in 20 minutes. Please do join us, thank you.” That precise line wouldn’t sound out of place in The Grand Budapest Hotel, even though it’s from a clothing ad.
Unfortunately, the ad is all we’re getting from Anderson this year. He’s busy working on a stop-motion animated movie about dogs, which can’t get here soon enough. All I want for Christmas is Bill Murray as a talking pooch.
