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‘A Christmas Carol’ (2009) ***

Whatever tired cynics may choose to say or believe, Christmas should you let it, can restore you. Some 3 years ago, it aches me to say, I was sat in a Christchurch hostel, November shorts, T-Shirt, a slowly approaching New Zealand spring delivering a sun blazing day and yet for 2 hours my slob self sat with a guy who had just sailed from the Philippines and we watched ‘Home Alone 2: Lost in New York’ in the hostel common area. Everytime that son and mother reunite under the Christmas tree in the Rockefeller Centre it gets to me. The setting, the cheer, the few moments of a clean slate and of knowing whats important. However much Kevin McCalister needed to repent for upsetting his family, Ebeneezer Scrooge, has been the poster boy for a yuletide story of redemption for over 200 years. The story of ‘A Christmas Carol’ has been adapted countless times, and in an oddly similar trajectory to that of another well known recluse, Dracula, has even been re-interpreted as a cartoon duck.  A Christmas Carol for 2009, comes to us courtesy of the height of cinematic technology – motion capture and 3D, with Jim Carrey taking on the role of Scrooge as well as those of the three Ghosts come to show the book keeper the ill in his ways.

A prologue to introduce us to Scrooge is followed by a wonderfully created opening sequence, taking in a birds eye view of industrial London before settling in to the familiar tale of Scrooge determined to ignore and reject the Christmas eve cheer surrounding him.  The film wants to re-create this journey of depth, contemplation and sometimes fright, and there is very little embellishment in terms of plot. Deviation comes however from the creators and their intent to generate some form of thrill ride or adventure from the events of the night. It is in this approach the cracks begin to appear . A younger Scrooge sits in his office working through the nature of his soon to be doomed relationship, speaking to his sweet heart in old Victorian English with prose probably very close to that penned by Dickens – a scene and event recreated in most adaptations. Somehow though minutes later Scrooge is being propelled skywards on a ghost converted rocket, for no other added value than to create some 3D stars and undo the potency of Scrooge revisiting his past mistakes. It seems that director Robert Zemeckis et al. are unwilling to let story take charge and want to bat the viewer with spectacle at every juncture.

This approach is most damaging during the visit of the third ghost. The most domineering, intimidating of the spectres, and created with great effect as only a sprawling shadow (so as not to confuse those more familiar with Dementors possibly) , the film seems to panic that its young audience may be growing restless, and sends Scrooge on an implausible chase through the cobbled streets at the behest of some black steeds. Instead, the effect is to alienate any audience that may be watching – this chase appears to be for no other reason that a shameless demand to insert some excitement, going so far as to shrink Scrooge so that the London drain system can become a water park and at one point Scrooge even winces and moans ‘come on’ as if he were a cast member in ‘Friends’. When the film settles back down to show Scrooge a possible future the film seems to have lost its rhythm and purpose. It feels totally disjointed to follow this with a visit to the bereaved Marley household and what could be the most effective moment in the film. The macabre, at one point quite tense and at others eerie themes of the film all struggle. As mentioned the ghost of Christmas yet to come is very well evoked. His colleague, showing present events, who in previous adaptations has always been a jovial ghost turns out to be the most effective visitor for the viewer, showing Scrooge his skewered view and in his parting, shows the transigence of the here and now. This snippet of thought though makes you wonder would Tim Burton and a stop motion cast have been the better choice to do Dickens justice.

The unsettling moments and the roller coaster moments fail to merge into a journey you can engage with and ultimately, Scrooges redemption is undercooked. A key scene where Scrooge might show a new determination fails to materialise; his change of heart seems to be motivated at finding he is alive on Christmas morning, and becoming a more benevolent creature to avoid anymore adrenaline rushes moreso than seeing the flaws with how he lived beforehand. Home Alone 2, a lesser sequel, I feel will weather better as a Christmas movie. And good and all as Carrey is, the Grinch and Limony Snicket will have to serve for now as his literature inspired great roles.