Those who know me well enough know of my love for the works of Charles Dickens. Those who know me even better could tell you that I have a Christmas tradition of reading A Christmas Carol on either Christmas Eve or the big day itself. The story is grim and dark, but not without the charm of any Dickens story. I have seen most every film version, and as with any retelling I have my favorites. I can't say that Disney's latest adaptation is among my top choices and I'm not sure that I would watch it again, but is at the very least an interesting new look at the classic tale.
We all know the story (or should!): the miserly and most unpleasant humbug of a man, Ebenezer Scrooge, toils away on Christmas Eve. He rebuffs the spirit of the season, attacks carolers, charitable workers and even his own nephew. Upon returning home late in the night, he is visited by the ghost of his old partner at his collection house, Jacob Marley, who warns him that his soul will be damned if he doesn't change his miserable ways. In order to guide him on a path of altruism, Scrooge is haunted by the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Yet to Come who guide him through his life to show where he went wrong with humanity.
There has always been a creepy atmosphere to this story. Dickens is known as a man of the people, whose works tend to reflect the conditions of an industrial but socially underdeveloped London. However, what he writes has always felt to me to a unobtrusive and almost distant look at poverty and the toils of the working class. It never gets in the way of his stories and only ever seems to slowly creep into the back of the reader's mind. Disney's version, however, makes the socio-economic conditions of the time all too relevant.
The film is entirely computer generated which gave the filmmakers enormous liberty when designing the world in which Scrooge would inhabit. What they chose was a sooty, drab landscape full of shadows. The people walking the streets are almost flinchingly ugly with their rotting teeth, sunken cheeks and hollow eyes. They seem to smell through the screen and their poverty is evident. When Scrooge turns away the poor his actions become all the more reprehensible for it.
There is no denying that the film is startling in its beauty. The characters, though CGI, all seem to resemble their voice actors. Jim Carrey, Gary Oldman and especially Colin Firth translate so well because one can see the actual person behind the technology. The voice acting is wonderful as well. I'm not sure that I would have chosen Carrey as Scrooge, but I do find it impressive that he not only did the main character, but the three ghosts as well. They all sounded great, though I did think his Mancunian accent sounded a bit off...
What I disliked about the film was the lack of joy that I got from it. It isn't supposed to be a happy story necessarily--in fact, it should be quite the opposite. But what it should have that the other versions have and that the book has is a celebration of the day and the happiness gotten from friends and family at Christmas. Instead, the characters that Dickens made so vibrant were dulled and unappealing. Their festivities did not seem all too enjoyable, and certainly not nice enough to make Scrooge remorseful.
A Christmas Carol is a particularly tricky story to navigate through film, because in a matter of three nights we need to see Scrooge renounce his entire life and choose to become a better person. Not only does he have to do this, but it needs to seem genuine. Not all of them do this, and this version completely failed as well. As we travel through Scrooge's life he seems particularly distant and therefore the growth of the character seems forced. We reach the end of the movie and it seems as though he is generous simply because he is a vain person fearful of death. There was no closure for the audience and therefore the film is not a success as a storyteller.
Although Robert Zemeckis had plenty of interesting ideas for his version, his visual flair made the film too dark to find the beauty of Christmas and helping one's fellow man which is what the story is all about.
2/4
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