It’s one of the most told tales in the history of film and television. Most shows have done a version of the story, and there have been film versions going back to the silent era. The most enduring would have to be the 1951 film staring Alastair Sim as the grumpy, anti-Christmas Ebenezer Scrooge. Patrick Stewart also had a wonderful run as Scrooge both on film and on the stage. There have been comedy versions of the story. Most of you may not know it, but Ebenezer Scrooge was Dr. Seuss’s inspiration for the popular Grinch character from his own lasting How The Grinch Stole Christmas. If you think about it, the story is the same one, minus the visits of ghosts. Charles Dickens created the character in 1843 after delivering a couple of sales flops. His publishers were starting to lose faith, so Dickens begged, borrowed and stole from anywhere he could to finance a Christmas book no one wanted to touch. A Christmas Carol was self-published and not only became his biggest hit, but also changed the way Christmas is celebrated throughout the world. It’s hard to believe that Christmas was nowhere near what it is today and would be a minor holiday if not for the pen of Charles Dickens. He continued to write supernatural Christmas books, but none of them are as remembered today as A Christmas Carol. It’s almost as if Dickens himself had a copyright on the term Humbug.
So with so many versions out there, why yet another? The answer is simple. It sells tickets, and it likely always will. This version is also significant for some other reasons. Johnny Depp has served out most of the last decade as a big studio pariah and has only really worked on a couple of small French films and other oddities. Ebenezer brings Depp back on the big screen for a major release, and already there is talk of more Pirates films, and it appears his days of banishment might be over. Most of his problems came from a very public court action between him and ex-wife Amber Heard. The attention didn’t give her any gold stars, either. Her role in the last Aquaman film was deeply reduced, and she’s served a bit of a banishment as well. The case didn’t make either of them look good, and it came off the heels of a Rolling Stone Magazine article where a reporter spent a lot of time with Depp, who was supposedly high and disgruntled most of the time. Normally I don’t think it would have hurt him that much, but it all added up to a Hollywood afraid of scandal these days shying away from Depp.
There’s never been any question that Depp has a great well of talent. He has always had this awesome ability to just inhabit a character to the fullest. Scrooge is no exception. You might not even recognize the actor under the makeup, but there’s no mistaking his presence. In fact, I thought he looked a bit like Roddy McDowall when I looked at him closely, particularly in the eyes. So Ebenezer is telling an old story, and there won’t be any surprises in spite of a tagline that promises to deliver info on Scrooge you don’t know. It doesn’t.
What the film does do is flesh out the two ends of the story. This is the first version I can recall where his partner Jacob Marley is alive as the film begins. Another great talent in Ian McKellan plays the ill-fated Scrooge partner. It’s a nice touch. We get to see maybe where some of Scrooge’s characteristics might have come from. By all accounts, Marley is much worse than Scrooge. Of course, he soon departs this world, and after all, how can he come back as the iconic chain-bearing ghost if he doesn’t? From here the story pretty much follows what we’ve seen before, with a couple of Depp moments to bring up the entertainment value. Fans of Depp’s very first film will appreciate the shoutout to A Nightmare On Elm Street and the old Humbug’s bed. You can tell the audience immediately recognized the gag, and it works perfectly.
I kind of feel for Harry Potter’s Rupert Grint, who plays the crucial part of Scrooge’s clerk Bob Cratchit. He does fine, but he’s completely swallowed up by Johnny Depp’s performance. He delivers, but I suspect that couldn’t have been easy. I loved the design of the ghosts. In most classic versions the ghosts are not very elaborate, but now with CGI they can be quite enormous. Andrea Riseborough, Tramell Tillman, and Robert Strange play the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Future respectively.
After the visits of the Christmas ghosts, we know that Scrooge has a change of heart. You could say his heart grew three sizes that day. Here again the film adds a bit to the story. Nothing groundbreaking, but we get a glimpse of an almost impish Scrooge heart filled with jolly and hand filled with a snowball or two. I think the bookend extensions give this version its only reason for existing. But we know that’s not true. Depp is back, and he’s in prime form. Look out, world. If you pass on this one, “You will regret this moment for the rest of your miserable life.”
