Charles Dickens wrote “A Christmas Carol” in 1838, and it is one of the timeless novels ever written. Many directors have come along and made their own adaptation in movie form, and each one of them has to be good. Even the ones that may be poor still have some element of good in them. I think the reason why we love this novel so much is because we all met someone who was like Ebenezer Scrooge. He was a man who just couldn’t get into the holidays until three ghosts of Christmas make him get into the holidays. Dickens usually starts with spirited young heroes or heroines and puts them with an entire cast of characters and caricatures. In “A Christmas Carol,” Scrooge is a caricature, never thinner, never more stooped, and never bitterer.
Today I will look at one of the adaptations of the classic Dickens novel. Which one you might ask? Well how about the one from 2009. This was written and directed by the great Robert Zemeckis, the same man who brought us the Back to the Future Trilogy, Forrest Gump, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Death Becomes Her, and Romancing the Stone. Zemeckis proves for a third time that he is one of the few directors who knows how to treat 3D right.
Jim Carrey is in there somewhere underneath the performance-capture animation. You will be able to point him out with his expressive mouth, but normally Zemeckis characters don’t resemble the actors portraying them so much. In “The Polar Express,” you knew it was Tom Hanks doing all of those characters, but in this film you’re not sure of Gary Oldman, Tim Roth, Robin Wright Penn, or Bob Hoskins.
Zemeckis has put these characters in London that twists and stretches its setting to look like the ghoulish mood. When you look at Scrooge’s living room, it’s narrow and tall just like him. The home of his nephew Fred (voiced by Colin Firth), is as wide and warm as his personality. It’s the antithesis of Scrooge, who is voiced by Carrey.
Animation gives you the freedom to show off anything you can think of, and Zemeckis does just that. Once in a while, he even seems to be inducing the ghost of Salvador Dali, like in the sequence when all of the furniture disappears and a large grandfather clock appears over Scrooge and a floor slanting into a distant point of view.
The three ghosts are very well done. Ebert has said, “I like the first, an elfin figure with a head constantly afire and a hat shaped like a candle-snuffer. Sometimes he playfully shakes his flames like a kid tossing the hair out of his eyes.” After another ghost flies out of Scrooge’s window, he runs over to see the whole street packed with floating ghostly figures, each one of them chained to a block.
You could probably go into a lot of in-depth talk about the voices given to these characters. Jim Carrey not only does Scrooge, but also all three of the ghosts. Gary Oldman voices Bob Cratchit, Marley and Tiny Tim.
Ebert says, “I remain unconvinced that 3-D represents the future of the movies, but it tells you something that Zemeckis' three 3-D features (also including "Beowulf") have wrestled from me 11 of a possible 12 stars.”
However, Ebert does like the way Zemeckis does it. Zemeckis seems to have more of a handle on how to use 3D rather than being used by it. If the foreground is occupied by close objects, they’re usually having a scary interior, not out over our heads. Notice the foreground wall that is covered with bells when Scrooge, who is far below that shot, enters his home. When one after another moves, it has a nice little touch to it.
The score done by the great Alan Silvestri manages to include some of the classic Christmas carols, but you have to really listen for them as “God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen” when its distinctive rhythms turn sinister during a hazardous flight through London.
I also have to give this film a 10. It’s a very good adaptation, but I’m sure there may be better ones, but we’ll see. Make sure to watch this along with other adaptations of “A Christmas Carol.”
Stay tuned tomorrow for my 25 day countdown of Christmas special reviews.
No comments:
Post a Comment