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A successful nightclub manager takes a train journey to Nottingham on Christmas Eve and discovers that it’s never too late to change.

Michael Sheen’s star vehicle is essentially A Christmas Carol on a train, though this time he’s self-guided rather than accompanied by ghosts.

It’s a tale of time travel, as Sheen’s Towers jumps backwards and forwards a decade at a time as he moves around the train. Once he gets over the initial shock, he discovers that making changes in the past will ripple into the future, sometimes to ill effect. It’s a journey of hubris, self-discovery and redemption, and while the premise is hardly original, its execution is commendable, with the chameleon-like Sheen playing around half a dozen alternate versions of himself (sometimes under prosthetics).

His sibling rivalry with brother Roger (Cary Elwes, The Princess Bride) is in danger of derailing Tony’s career at various points, and as he creates a new future he recognises the paths that he really should have followed. Sheen is great as Tony, from gameshow host to Peter Stringfellow-coiffed entrepreneur to drunken loser, and the production benefits from being shot on real train carriages. And as the decade changes, so to does the interior of the carriage and the people on board. The aspect ratio and film stock also switches to reflect the time, complementing by a period-accurate score.

Verdict: A great showcase for Sheen, some easy-to-follow time travel and celebrity cameos that enhance the different eras, this is a great Sunday afternoon film that’s not so Christmassy that it can only be watched in December. 8/10