A Christmas Carol

By Patrick Samuel • December 12th, 2010

A CHRISTMAS CAROL (Blu-ray)

Release Date: November 8th 2010
Certificate: PG
Running Time: 96 minutes

Director: Robert Zemeckis

Cast: Jim Carrey, Cary Elwes, Gary Oldman, Colin Firth, Robin Wright Penn and Bob Hoskins.

I wonder if Charles Dickens had any idea how many times his classic story, A Christmas Carol, would be re-told in the (almost) one and half centuries that would pass since he first wrote it in 1843.

The most recent adaptation was directed by Robert Zemeckis, and featured Jim Carrey in several of roles including Ebenezer Scrooge as a young, middle-aged, and old man, as well as the three ghosts who haunt him.

We all know at least one Scrooge. He’s the guy who makes you stay late on the one day you’d like to leave early. He’s the one who’ll say Christmas decorations in the office are against health and safety policies. Nearly 150 years might have passed and Scrooges remain the same, but there’s at least one who’ll get a chance to change his mean ways when he’s visited by the ghosts of Christmas past, present and future on Christmas Eve!

Filmed using the performance capture technique that director Zemeckis previously employed for The Polar Express (2004), enabling him to capture all of Carrey’s performances and transfer them to the film. Unfortunately, despite the film’s special effects and high-tech approach it lacks the emotion of previous adaptations. There seems to be something hollow and the movie left me waiting for the Christmas spirit it promised to unleash.

I tried to get my 8-year-old reviewer Squidget to sit with me so we could watch it together and talk about it, but he didn’t like the look of the movie or its characters. He was more interested in Avatar, Ben 10, Tom & Jerry and Toy Story. After the first 15 minutes there was nothing for him to connect to; there are no songs, no funny moments, no action and he was not impressed with the voices. I think “Squidget” also felt there were things in the movie which might give him nightmares and he felt uncomfortable with overall atmosphere of the movie. Eventually I ended up watching it on my own, but I have to agree with the little fella, this is the weakest re-telling of A Christmas Carol I have come across. The technology might be great, but it lacks heart and fails where the Muppets succeeded with their 1992 version.

If you’d like to see something Squidget highly recommends, he gives The Karate Kid (2010) the two thumbs up!

Patrick Samuel

The founder of Static Mass Emporium and one of its Editors in Chief is a composer and music producer with a philosophy degree. Static Mass is where he lives his passion for film and writing about it. A fan of film classics, documentaries and World Cinema, Patrick prefers films with an impeccable way of storytelling that reflect on the human condition.

You can find his music on Soundcloud .

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