A Christmas Carol Review

Charles Dickens’ beloved holiday story “A Christmas Carol” gets the 3D treatment, and the result is a visually stunning big-screen experience I’m sure many cinema goers out there will enjoy to the fullest extent. As far as I’m concerned, my feelings about this one are mixed.
The story doesn’t really require a lengthy introduction. The holiday season is in full swing, and Ebenezer Scrooge (Jim Carrey) despises Christmas and everyone celebrating it. Then he’s visited by three ghosts who take him on an emotional journey, and before you know it, his meanness is gone for good…read more [ScreeningLog]

It’s hard to believe that Charles Dickens wrote A Christmas Carol 166 years ago, but here we are in 2009 and Robert Zemeckis has spent $180 million to produce a motion-capture animated film that retells the famous story. The movie opens this weekend on more than 2,000 digital 3D screens and features the voices of Jim Carrey, Gary Oldman, Colin Firth, Bob Hoskins, Cary Elwes and Robin Wright Penn. Despite first being published on December 19, 1843, A Christmas Carol remains one of the most popular, heart-warming holiday tales ever written. I’m sure you don’t need a recap of Scrooge’s encounters with the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Future




Belle, voiced by Robin Wright Penn, Ebenezer Scrooge, voiced by Jim Carrey and Fred, voiced by Colin Firth, are shown in a scene from A Christmas Carol.

If you’ve seen any incarnation of Charles Dickens’s “A Christmas Carol” the best way to describe this latest attempt is to call it a stripped down non-inventive take on the classic Christmas story that wears on too long and is just plain dull. By the time I hit the Ghost of Christmases Yet To Come I was ready to check out, I knew what was coming and wasn’t expecting any deviation. I won’t say I was ever bored beyond reproach, but I was never moved and certainly never felt a kinship with any of the characters whose dull and lifeless eyes and facial features are far from inviting. The putty-like facial issues and non-responsive eyes have flummoxed Zemeckis since The Polar Express in 2004 and there is very little sign of improvement here. Considering the eyes are the gateway to the soul, a lot is missing when the spark isn’t there…