Elle Fanning’s ‘Lump of Coal’ Christmas Movie Deserves Its 0% Rotten Tomatoes Score
Hollywood understands the hype surrounding Christmas and sometimes provides us with some of the best movies that become classics. From films like Home Alone to Elf, these movies never go out of style.
However, for every five good movies, there’s always one that doesn’t truly capture the essence of Christmas. Elle Fanning’s Christmas movie is one of those that missed the mark. The star’s ‘lump of coal’ Christmas movie deserves its 0% Rotten Tomatoes score.
A look into Elle Fanning’s career
Fanning began acting even before she turned three. Her acting debut came when she appeared in Taken as her older sister Dakota Fanning’s younger version. The two also worked together in the movie I Am Sam. Fanning became independent of her sister in 2002 when she appeared in Daddy Day Care.
In 2004, her talent shone when she landed the part of Ruth in The Door in The Floor. Although the producers wanted to hire twins, they decided to go with Fanning due to her acting talent. She then appeared on Charlotte’s Web the following year and played Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett’s daughter in Babel.
She would reunite with her Babel cast mates two years later in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, this time playing Blanchett’s younger self. Fanning appeared as the titular character in Phoebe in Wonderland that same year, although the movie premiered in 2009. In 2007, she appeared in The Nutcracker in 3D as Mary. The film premiered in 2010.
Fanning then appeared in We Bought a Zoo, Super 8, and Somewhere. She, however, gained international recognition when she appeared in Maleficent alongside Angelina Jolie. The role helped Fanning earn more parts appearing in Trumbo, Low Down, Young Ones, The Neon Demon, and The Vanishing of Sidney Hall. Fanning starred in The Girl from Plainville in 2022 and is expected to star in The Nightingale.
Elle Fanning’s 2009 movie deserves its 0% Rotten Tomatoes score
Fanning appeared in The Nutcracker: The Untold Story, formerly known as The Nutcracker in 3D in 2009, playing Mary. The movie follows Fanning’s character, who receives a magical doll revealed to be a prince. She embarks on an adventure to help the prince save his people from the Rat King.
The Nutcracker was a box office flop earning $20 million against a $90 million budget. It was also widely panned by critics who called out the movie for its twisted visuals and similarities between the rats and the Nazis.
The movie has a 0% Rotten Tomatoes score, with many critics agreeing that the score is well deserved. Brian D. Johnson of Maclean’s Magazine warned, “Do not see this movie. Do not take your children to this movie. Do not be tempted by the title, or dancing visions of sugar plum fairies. Do not put on the 3D glasses.”
Top Critic Frank Scheck of the Hollywood Reporter said of the movie, “Delivering the cinematic equivalent of a lump of coal in a Christmas stocking, The Nutcracker in 3D is an apparent scrooge-like attempt by Russian filmmaker Andrei Konchalovsky to forever ruin children’s association with the classic Yuletide ballet.”
Cheat Sheet also ranked the movie No. 1 on its Worst Holiday Movies of All Time list.
Other movies with 0% Rotten Tomatoes scores
Critics called the 1998 sci-fi film Mac and Me “a pale imitation of E.T.,” and “a thinly veiled feature-length commercial for McDonalds and Coca-Cola.”
3 Strikes might have promised to give audiences a hilarious time, but critics felt otherwise. One review of the 2000 movie said it “lacks direction and its low-brow humor isn’t even that funny.”
For London Fields, the consensus stated that “not every book needs to be turned into a film.”
Check out more films with a 0% Rotten Tomatoes score as listed by Newsweek.
