A Christmas Carol:
The most recent of the many adaptations of Charles Dickens' acclaimed novella is also one of the most ambitious. It follows the same basic story of the miserable and greedy banker Ebenezer Scrooge and his transformation from a miserly and selfish old man to a caring and warm-hearted one via supernatural events during Christmas Eve. Jim Carrey not only portrays Scrooge as an old man, but also the young and middle-aged versions of the character, as well as all three Ghosts: Christmas Past, Present, and Yet to Come. Gary Oldman also plays multiple roles, including Bob Cratchit, Jacob Marley, and Tiny Tim (although child actor Ryan Ochoa provided Tim's voice). Colin Firth portrays Fred, Scrooge's optimistic and friendly nephew who only wants his mean and spiteful uncle to be happy and kind towards others. Bob Hoskins plays Mr. Fezziwig, Scrooge's kind-hearted former employer, as well as Old Joe, a minor characters who is a fence (someone who buys stolen property to resell to another person). Robin Wright not only plays Scrooge's former fiancée Belle, but also his loving and sweet younger sister Nan, who died after giving birth to Fred years earlier. Cary Elwes appears not only as Scrooge's former roommate Dick Wilkins, but also as several minor characters throughout. Robert Zemeckis (The Polar Express, Beowulf, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Back to the Future, Flight, Forrest Gump, Cast Away, What Lies Beneath, Contact, Romancing the Stone, Death Becomes Her) has used the performance capture format before, and the two films he did before this one (The Polar Express, Beowulf) turned out well, but this and Express are definitely the strongest of the three, funny enough, both are Christmas family films. Tom Hanks isn't back this time around, but Jim Carrey does well as the lead. He does do a bit of over-acting here and there, but overall, I was surprised he could pull off a slightly more dramatic role, even though he's done it before (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Man on the Moon, and The Truman Show are all great examples of this). But usually in his family films, he tends to goof off a bit too much, whereas here, I feel like he found a good balance between the over-the-top comedy and the drama. The visuals in the movie are great, although I don't understand why performance capture was needed. I understand that for certain characters it's necessary (like the Ghosts), but every character having it is a bit much. The animation is impressive, especially the facial expressions, but I've always wondered, what's the point of having to do hours of animation to make it look like a real person instead of just showing a real person? I know they do shoot the people on digital and just do the animation over it, but that to me seems like just a lot of unnecessary work. But it doesn't bother me that much, and I think the film still was enjoyable and it is kind of cool to see the actors being able to play so many varying roles using the technology of motion capture. I was surprised by how dark and creepy some of the imagery gets here, especially for a holiday-themed, Disney-produced family film. There's ghosts, corpses, frightening hallucinations (one involving representations of Ignorance and Want, depicted as two homeless and deranged children who grow up into violent psychopaths), a scary-ass and somewhat malicious Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come (who resembles the Grim Reaper), and mentions of a child's death from sickness and malnutrition (although this only takes place in an alternate universe). But that doesn't make it bad, in fact I think it's a bit better to have some dark stuff in family films, because although the film is obviously pure fiction, real life does definitely have dark and frightening moments, and these kind of films can help children better prepare and cope with scary situations in the real world. I'm getting a bit off-track here, so I'll just try to wrap it up now. A Christmas Carol may not be the greatest adaptation of the book, or the best holiday films, but it's well-acted, has some great visuals, a visionary director, and is very entertaining, so I'd say if you're looking for something to watch around the holidays, it's definitely worth a watch, or if you have seen it, it's worth a re-watch or two. 3.5/5 stars.
(Image: Wikipedia)
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