Review: Disney’s A Christmas Carol

Jim Carrey, Gary Oldman, Bob Hoskins, Colin Firth, Robin Wright Penn. Walt Disney presents a film written and directed by Robert Zemeckis. Based on the story by Charles Dickens. Running time: 95 minutes. Rated PG (for scary sequences and images).

While I’m certain many will again herald the technical wonders of filmmaker Robert Zemeckis’ A Christmas Story much as they did with the superior The Polar Express (serene, haunting) and Beowulf (dark, visceral), the novelty is beginning to wear off. Take away the gee-whiz factor–yes, Zemeckis does 3-D better than anyone, period—and we have a standard-issue telling of a classic, with little emotional weight.

In this new version, Jim Carrey is Ebenezer Scrooge and also plays all three of Dickens classic ghosts, Gary Oldman is Bob Cratchit, Jacob Marley and Tiny Tim. Colin Firth is Scrooge’s nephew, Bob Hoskins is Mr. Fezziwig and Robin Wright Penn does double duty as Scrooge’s sister and neglected fiancée. And all of them are perfectly fine, but one wonders how these multiple characters played by single actors saved on the acting budget of a film that reportedly cost $175 million.

By now we’re all familiar with both the story of A Christmas Carol and with the innovative Disney Digital 3-D animation technology employed to capture motion and actors, who perform on a soundstage prior to a digital design process which animates their every action and expression. I was lucky enough to attend the extravagant A Christmas Carol train tour that made its stop in Chicago last summer, with every detail of the approach explained. It is, indeed, a fascinating process and hats off to Zemeckis, Carrey and crew for the arduous work of capturing their physical and emotional beats so seamlessly and expanding the boundaries of what movies can do.

That being said, beyond a gorgeous, swooping “crane” shot atop London during A Christmas Carol’s opening credits (which looks deceptively “real”) and an inspired depiction of a wintry, graveyard blizzard during the climax, not much in A Christmas Carol really zips. Yes, it’s incredibly dimensional and lifelike in technique, but the story here, with all the new digital touches, doesn’t truly resonate. And perhaps that’s because A Christmas Carol is a simple story of redemption, and layering it with sophisticated special effects quickly becomes overkill.

It’s also largely because the technology, perfectly suited to creatures, fantastic elements and constructs like those found in Beowulf, is lost on human faces. Consider the expressionless, mannequin-like gestures made by the many secondary characters here. Carolers, for example, look particularly vacant.

Only one facial expression punches through this barrier, when Scrooge stands atop the stairs later in the film, and Cratchit stares into his face after the potential demise of Tiny Tim. In this moment, emotion trumps the technical tinkering.

Disappointingly, there’s nothing particularly interesting, frightening or unique about the three visitations either, with the ghost of Christmas past particularly irritating, a headache-inducing, too-bright pixie whose effect feels akin to shining a flashlight directly into the audience’s eyes. Perhaps this is because, like other 3-D, there’s a somewhat dim glaze over everything in other scenes, and since Dickens’ story takes place in a world lit by candles and daylight, it seems jarring.

Narratively, there are no new ideas in this version, and nothing to make it more memorable than the 1951 classic starring Alastair Sim, whom Carrey, pushing a bit too hard, doesn’t come close to approaching. The same could be said for Zemeckis, one of Hollywood’s great directors, who hasn’t really emphasized the story’s dramatic arc. Technique aside, whatever newness he has brought to the story – including a bizarre, action-movie climax involving a bombastic hearse-chase culminating in a shrunken Scrooge with a pip-squeak voice – is invention the story doesn’t need and obviously added to cater to modern attention spans.

Who doesn’t love the ending of A Christmas Carol? Sadly, it doesn’t quite work here. In the final scenes, Scrooge’s conversion should be stirring, not silly, slapsticky and exuberant. And Carrey, the supremely talented comedian, plays with the same rubbery ticks of goofiness that are his hallmark, making Scrooge so giddy that the drama dissipates, and we realize we are in the hands of actor Jim Carrey, and no longer in a Dickensian life lesson.

- Lee Shoquist