Reviewed
by Lamar Kukuk
11/11/09
It's not a question
people are often asked, but if you ask me “What's the greatest fictional
story ever written?” I'm gonna tell you hands down, it's Charles Dickens'
A Christmas Carol. I know, you're rolling your eyes, muttering something
about corniness and 70's sitcoms, but I'll stand my ground. What
else can you ask of great fiction for but to illuminate the human condition
and provide us with inspiration and hope? And there's no story that
speaks to me more on the subjects of how past events make us the people
we are today, but don't give us an excuse not to recognize and improve
our shortcomings. There is nothing more important than our capacity
for change, and I've never seen a feature adaptation of A Christmas Carol
(OK, I'll admit most of those sitcom episodes do suck) that didn't at least
make me feel energized.
-from my review
of Ghosts of Girlfriends Past
So,
as you can tell, I'm a Christmas Carol Fanboy. I'm going to
watch each new version not so much the way, say, you would, but with an
eye toward how it handles each and every nook and cranny of the Dickens
story, how it compares to all the other famous versions (and not-so-famous,
although even I haven't scratched the surface of seeing the dozens and
dozens of outside-the-box adaptations), and, most importantly, how much
it makes me cry. Robert Zemeckis' new A Christmas Carol, the
first filming to use motion capture animation and 3D, doesn't exactly storm
the gates of the Citizen Kane of Christmas Carols, 1951's
Scrooge (now generally called A Christmas Carol and henceforth
to be referred to as “The Alastair Sim version”) or my cult favorite, 1992's
The Muppet Christmas Carol. But it does nail two of the five
main sections of the story, do a perfectly good job with two others, and
sports some great small moments that Carol junkies like me will
really appreciate. For those studying Zemeckis' one-man technological
revolution, motion capture continues to make strides but is not quite there
yet, and the 3D here is less innovative than in his previous outing, Beowulf.
Time for the plot synopsis. All together now:
It's
Christmas Eve in 1842 London, but one man does not share the festive spirit
of the city: businessman Ebeneser Scrooge (Jim Carrey). Scrooge
hates Christmas, resents the poor, rejects nephew Fred (Colin Firth), his
only living relative, and generally despises all who find joy in anything
that doesn't involve making money. After bitterly turning away a
man (Cary Elwes) seeking donations for those less fortune, he begrudges
clerk Bob Cratchit (Gary Oldman) Christmas Day off, then heads for his
cold, lonely home, where the image of his old, dead partner Jacob Marley
(Oldman again) appears on his knocker. Shaking off that scare, Scrooge
settles in for the night, but Marley, dead though he may be, is not done
with him. His ghost enters Scrooge's parlor, dragging lock boxes
of coins around by heavy chains, doomed to wander the Earth endlessly and
witness the suffering he ignored while alive. A similar damnation
awaits his partner Scrooge, but Marley has arranged for one last intervention:
ghosts representing Christmases Past, Present and Yet to Come (Carrey again
each time) will take him on a long journey showing him how he became the
heartless miser he is today, the pain he inflicts on those he could easily
help, and where that path ultimately leads. Can these visits save
the soul of Ebeneser Scrooge, or must Bob's sick son Tiny Tim (Oldman once
more) perish like so many of the poor and underprivileged he's spent his
whole life ignoring?
First,
the review for those not interested in the exhaustive analysis to follow:
while A Christmas Carol is considered family fare, it's also a harsh
tale meant by Dickens as a “sledgehammer” to awaken the wealthy classes
to their obligation to care for those less fortunate, especially at the
Holidays. As such, misery, death and a little thing we like to call
Eternal Damnation play prominent roles, and Tales from the Crypt
mastermind Zemeckis does not shy away from Carol's status as an
iconic ghost story. In some ways, he paints with too broad a brush,
playing primarily to audiences who know the story by heart and ignoring
important details like exactly what kind of business Scrooge is in, even
though the story will require them later. And he's far too fond of
his 3D toolbox, piling on sequences of flight, falling and chase that go
on far too long for a movie that's got only 93 minutes to redeem the soul
of the Meanest Man in London. Of course, he's hardly the first to
go too far in trying to pump up Carol's escapist quotient, and he's
refreshingly restrained when it comes to going for laughs, despite the
presence of Carrey in four different roles (the credits pile on more, claiming
it's a different role each time he plays Scrooge at a different age, but
that's just silly).
Zemeckis,
the Oscar-winning director of beloved classics like Forrest Gump
and Back to the Future, has more or less abandoned live-action filmmaking
to pursue a passion for the technological possibilities of motion capture
animation, which has become widely used for special effects in mainstream
movies, but remained his alone for full-length features. The idea
is to be able to transform your actors into anything, and Carol
does indeed plant a repertory company of actors into about a half-dozen
roles each. The ability of effects to create realistic guises for
this game of dress-up has improved a great deal since The Polar Express,
but the payoff remains elusive. Carey, for instance, is a fine old
Scrooge, all bitterness and resentment, and an awesome Ghost of Christmas
Present (more on that later). He struggles as Christmas Past (more
on that later as well) because of his acting choices, and doesn't really
register as Christmas Yet to Come because of the way the role is conceived.
But the real purpose of the motion capture game is to allow him to play
Scrooge in his past at various ages, and here the limitations of the technology
become evident. As a boy and a young man, he's asked to play internal
emotions; loneliness and love, and these subtleties, transmitted mostly
through the eyes, are invisible to Zemeckis' computers. The scene
where he meets and falls in love with Belle (Robin Wright Penn) at Fezziwig's
party may as well be part of the Barbie Christmas Carol, because
neither actor registers as anything other than an avatar moving across
the screen. In fact, Penn isn't able to get a single emotion on-screen
throughout Belle's arc. Women in general have been ill-served by
the process (although Angelina Jolie shined in Beowulf),
for reasons I'm just not technically savvy enough to understand.
On the other hand, Oldman is able to heartbreakingly convey Cratchit's
despair over his son's death in the Christmas Future scenes, but I'd still
say that motion capture is far better at capturing negative and theatrical
emotions than positive and subtle ones.
The
3D is snazzy, to be sure, although for all the flying and the nifty Christmas
Present effects (again, more on those later), there are fewer “wow!” moments
than one might expect. Snow is one of the best tricks in the modern
3D toolbox, and it's used to great effect here. Alan Silvestri's
score nicely incorporates some holiday standards, but it's a bit too bombastic
for my taste, and it could be the second coming of "O Holy Night" and no
Christmas Carol should still end with an original song called “God
Bless Us, Every One” (it's not the second coming of "O Holy Night", by
the way).
But
now let's us Carol Geeks roll up our sleeves and break this puppy down
(SPOILER ALERT, READ NO FARTHER IF YOU DON'T KNOW THIS STORY BY HEART!!!)!
PROLOGUE:
As I mentioned earlier, Zemeckis is a bit too eager to fly through this
material, scrimping on what goes on at Scrooge and Marley as well as important
details like Ebeneser's disdain for coal in the fireplace (he sticks to
a visual cue for what should at least have gotten a line). The scene
between Scrooge and Fred really pops, though, and I could feel how much
the old man doesn't just reject his nephew but despises him for living
on in place of his beloved Sister. The setup scene with the Gentlemen
looking for donations mostly sticks to the script. Marley's visit
has some scary oomph. There's a nice boo! with the door knocker I
didn't see coming, and the bit where the rag tying his jaw in place comes
loose is appropriately ghoulish. I don't know if it's intentional
or not, but Marley's eyes don't focus quite right, which is distracting,
but I really liked how clear Zemeckis makes it that Marley is not just
the herald of Scrooge's second chance, but also its' architect. The
sequence where Scrooge sees the many ghosts pitifully wandering London
has a lot of kick, and rivals that in the Alastair Sim version as the best
playing of that scene.
CHRISTMAS
PAST: This is where the movie drags, and it's generally true
that Christmas Past separates the Men from the Boys in Carol-land
because it's here that you've got to make me feel how Scrooge went off
the tracks (the Sim version does this very well with its' willingness to
fill in gaps and add sequences deepening Scrooge's relationships with Marley
and his sister Tess, and I find the Muppet telling to be the standard bearer).
The first mistake is both Carrey's performance and his form as the Ghost,
a wispy candle with a lilting Irish accent that also never quite seems
to have its' eyes focused where it should. Then, the movie plows
through material like Scrooge's lonely childhood, his relationship with
Belle and his apprenticeship under Mr. Fezziwig (Bob Hoskins) without delivering
any of the actual lessons these moments taught. Fezziwig's not just
some guy who put on the party where Scrooge met Belle, he's Dickens' ideal
boss, a man as concerned for the happiness and well-being of his workers
as the profit he makes. Here, he's just some guy who put on a great
party, although he and Mrs. Fezziwig (Jacquie Barnbrook) dance around with
reckless abandon that suggests the entire sequence takes place inside The
Matrix.
CHRISTMAS
PRESENT: Pulling the nose up, Zemeckis serves up a Christmas
Present that can compete with any put on film. Yes, it's true that
he skimps on the Cratchits (look again to the Muppets, and also the 1999
Patrick Stewart version, for the best Cratchit sequences), but is mostly
able to get their point across, particularly because Oldman is so good
at putting on Bob's happy face in the face of despair. But it's Carrey's
Ghost of Christmas Present that is my new favorite performance in the role
(Edward Woodward hit it out of the park in the 1984 George C. Scott version
as well). Jolly but judgmental, short-lived but wise, he guides Scrooge
through the world he doesn't take time to notice through the movie's best
3D effects (flying through the city without leaving his home, they view
the world through the transparent space in Scrooge's floor). And
then comes the real show-stopper, the Ignorance and Want sequence, where
Zemeckis goes bananas with the horror movie imagery and serves up ghoulish
children who live full, wasted lives before Scrooge's eyes while a laughing
Ghost also ages to his death, all the while marked by the clanging strokes
of midnight. This is the movie's high point, and makes it a shame
the director couldn't do more with...
CHRISTMAS
YET TO COME: ...handicapped not so much by the intriguing but
in-practice pointless decision to make the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come
Scrooge's shadow as by the fact that this is where the director goes craziest
on spectacle. Watch Scrooge get chased through the streets by demon
horses pulling a demon carriage! Listen to Carrey's voice squeak
when he's shrunk to the size of a mouse to observe the events around him!
All the while, this third act plays out no better or worse than we've come
to expect, with the pleasant presence of my favorite Yet to Come scene
you don't often see (the young couple who're the only ones feeling emotion
over Scrooge's death, and then only because it means foreclosure on their
home has been delayed), and an unsubtle flaming pit lying beneath Scrooge's
coffin. Oldman is devastating in the scene after Tiny Tim's death,
and it's also an interesting choice to uncover all the writing on that
fateful stone except the year of Scrooges death. Tick tock, tick
tock.
EPILOGUE:
Or, the point where we find out how much I'm going to cry. I may
well have shed more tears at filmings of A Christmas Carol than
all other movies combined (and half of those at The Muppet Christmas
Carol: talk about a sledgehammer!), and Zemeckis takes his share
as well. While he again scrimps a bit on the Cratchit payoff, he
delivers those many back payments with the Gentleman just short of its'
all-time high with the Muppets (Elwes delivers the movie's one truly subtle
acting moment here), adds a nice “only in an animated movie” bit with Scrooge
reclaiming some of his lost childhood on the London streets, and takes
us back to Fred's place with an emotionally rich humility topped only by
the classic Patrick Stewart moments there. I liked that when Scrooge
finally laughs, it reminds him of Christmas Present's laugh, consistent
with a movie that reserves its' most resonant moments for the supporting
characters who don't often get a lot of play.
And
there you have it. It's pretty hard for me to imagine a full theatrical
mounting of A Christmas Carol screwing up our greatest fictional
story unless it totally torched Dickens' text, and Zemeckis goes out of
his way to be faithful, even if his filming becomes a bit of a fire drill
at times. It's far from the best film version of this story (or even
the best this year, as Ghosts of
Girlfriends Past found startling new life in the Scrooge story by giving
it a total genre makeover), but it does deliver the holiday goods along
with an intriguing progress report of Robert Zemeckis' Big Ol' Science
Project. It's a good jumping-off point for viewers unfamiliar with
the story, who should rest assured that even better versions await them
in the toasty comfort of their Netflix queue. |
