A 'Christmas Carol' with heart

"Marley was dead, to begin with . . ."

The appearance of those words on the screen signifies a couple of things about Disney's new adaptation of A Christmas Carol. Number one, this will be no simple and merry Christmas tale, but one that freely explores the darkness as well as the light.

Number two, director/screenwriter/co-producer Robert Zemeckis has read the book. Of course, one would expect him to, but I don't mean that he just gave it a skim and then went off to come up with his own ideas. I mean he's read the book, thoroughly and carefully, with loving attention to detail. I have not seen all the Christmas Carol adaptations, but I would wager that this is probably one of the most faithful ones out there, if not the most faithful. Not just in much of the dialogue, but in the little things, like the blind man's dog that shies away from Scrooge just as Dickens describes. While the film is also full of inspired little imaginative touches from Zemeckis, a lot of them fit into the story absolutely seamlessly.

Not that faithfulness is the major selling point -- the motion capture technique is the major selling point, and on the whole, I was pleased with how that turned out. It gives most of the characters the look of figures from a beloved old children's storybook, and it gives Zemeckis the freedom to play with camera angles and long, swooping tracking shots and generally to take us on a madcap journey with the protagonist of the tale. Only here and there does he go overboard with it. I refuse to believe that Mrs. Fezziwig ever moved like a Dancing with the Stars contestant on steroids, for instance. But more on that in a moment.

In the meantime, what of our protagonist? Jim Carrey makes a satisfying Scrooge, striking a chill into the very marrow as he opens the show by stealing the pennies right off dead Marley's eyes. His gradual transformation is satisfying as well, and he has a couple of deeply moving moments -- his anguished stare into the face of grieving Bob Cratchit, in a beautifully shot scene, had me in tears -- that nicely balance out the more frantic action sequences.

As the Ghost of Christmas Past, Carrey's performance isn't quite in the same league; the character is apparently on uppers, breaking into some sort of weird interpretive dance for no reason that I can see. (As you've probably gathered, freedom of movement has been made an integral part of the film; sometimes this works well, sometimes not quite so well.) His Ghost of Christmas Present is better, though he's been given a nightmarish demise instead of just vanishing as he does in the book. Colin Firth, Gary Oldman, Robin Wright Penn, and the other actors turn in strong performances as well, but the film really belongs to Carrey, and not just because he's playing four parts.

Where the film is weakest is where it deviates furthest from Dickens, and I'm not just saying that because I'm a Dickens fanatic. My companion at the screening, who is not a Dickens fanatic, said the same thing. This would be during the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come sequence, which has inexplicably been turned into a wild horse-and-carriage chase that plays out like a combination of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Alice in Wonderland, with a dash of A Tale of Two Cities thrown in (no kidding! Look for the shot of the wine barrel). This, I think, is almost the only part of the film that screams "Look what we can do with motion capture!" But it's the worse for that.

Oh, and I have to tell you -- remember that article about parents of little kids who complained about the scene where Marley's jaw literally drops? Yeah, well, I don't blame them. It's gross. It wasn't in the footage that I saw on the train, so I didn't realize what everyone was talking about, but when I saw it here, I got so freaked out I could hardly bear to look. True, it was in the book, but I don't think I had ever actually pictured what it would look like!

My screening was in 3-D, and although I said before that that sort of thing isn't really my bag, I think I may be ready to take that statement back. They've used 3-D here in a way that serves the story rather than taking away from it, adding richness and depth to the scenes. The only place where it felt like a showoff technique was, again, in that protracted action sequence with the horses.

But don't believe everything the promos tell you: The real point of this film is not the action scenes, but the story, and it's truly a treat to find an adaptation that shows such reverence for its source material while simultaneously taking opportunities to enhance it. If Zemeckis & Co.'s ambition was to put a fresh stamp on an old tale while still remaining loyal to the original, I would say they have succeeded admirably. But their greatest success lies not in refreshing the story, but in retaining its heart.

Comments

[Christy]

I'm so excited to see it!

[Sabrina]

Thank you for posting this review! I am so excited to see this film! :D

[Marian]

Glad to hear that they kept it so close to the book!! I'll probably have to close my eyes during the jaw-dropping moment, but this sounds like something worth using that theater admission ticket I have (which, coincidentally, someone gave me last Christmas).

[David Paul]

This is a wonderfully written review and deserves to be read by a crowd much larger than that which frequents this blog (no offense intended to this blog, a web location I am coming to count on as a very nice "morning tea mate"). I strongly encourage you to try to get your review published more widely!!! Cheers to you!

[Gina]

That is most kind! But not to worry, I've been sharing it through Facebook and other social media. :-) I actually did get my "Little Dorrit" review published at a much bigger site, back in the spring. But I had an awful lot going on this week and decided to just get this one written and get it up here without going through the submission and waiting process.

[David Paul]

Well, thanks for all your efforts at promoting appreciation for Charles Dickens!! I am so glad to have been exposed to this blog and I look forward to enjoying it for as long as it's up and running!!

[Nibs]

Ditto to that, David! :D

[Gina]

Thank you both. I certainly couldn't keep it going without the contributions from all the wonderful Dickens fans!

[Christy]

Ibid, David and Nibs!

[David Paul]

Well, yesterday, three of my four children, two of their friends, my wife and I all climbed into the minivan and drove through the early afternoon sunlight to our favorite movie theater, paid our (outrageous) entry fee, donned our 3d glasses and sat down for a real treat: A Christmas Carol! I can only say "Bravo". I thought it was amazingly effective. I get chills as I write this just recalling certain particularly effective scenes, of the young Scrooge dancing with his lovely and noble intended, of the young Scrooge in the counting house losing her, of Bob Cratchit raising his glass and toasting Scrooge, and Scrooge's nephew playing a game of guess the animal, and of course the Cratchit home and table without Tiny Tim, of Scrooge confronting the fact that no one mourned his death. I was particularly impressed with the way the film expressed the supreme joy of Scrooge's Christmas Day. I was wondering at points during the dark of night whether the film would be able to carry the brilliant light of Christmas morn off as well as it had the darkness of Scrooge's dream-scape. And yes, tears of joy rolled down my face as Scrooge bought the largest turkey for the Cratchits and sang the end of the carol with the carolers and gave abundantly to the cause of the poor and the needy. And when Scrooge entered his nephew's home just at the point of the guess the animal game and humbly asked to be a part of his family, I felt like God had forgiven and blessed this broken world again and given us all a new beginning. Needless to say, I felt like dancing and I laughed out loud at the final scene when Bob arrived 16 minutes late for work the day after Christmas and was rewarded with a big fat raise and an errand to buy an ample supply of coal. YES, YES, YES!!!! Life is good. No matter how ugly this world can be, we are Blessed! Fear not the world, but embrace it, and all will be well, no matter what, no matter what!!! Just lovely.

[David Paul]

i am struck by how the story in Pickwick Papers of Gabriel Grub (that I happened by chance to read this afternoon) foreshadows A Christmas Carol. You may recall that Gabriel is a gravedigger who hates the mirth and happiness of others, and trudges off to the graveyard alone one Christmas Eve to finish work on a grave. On his way, he encounters a child singing a "jolly song about a merry Christmas". This irked Gabriel so much that he struck the little fellow "five or six times" with his lantern "to teach him to modulate his voice". Gabriel proceeds then to occupy himself for an hour or so in grave digging and drinking from his "wicker bottle" when his solitude is interrupted by a goblin and his company. As punishment for drinking alone in a graveyard on Christmas Eve, this goblin carries Gabriel to his lair and shows Gabriel some visions. These visions are highly instructive to Gabriel, and Gabriel learns the very lessen that Scrooge learns. There is some absolutely beautiful reflections by the author about those who are "delicately nurtured, and tenderly brought up". Remarkable!

[Gina]

Good catch there, David!

It looks like Michael Slater also touches on this in his biography. I haven't yet got to that passage in my reading of it, but the section was excerpted in the WSJ.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703683804574531862251355496.html?mod=googlenews_wsj