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| Film vitals |
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· Year: 1999
· Also known as: TNT's "A Christmas Carol"
· Director: David Hugh Jones
· Writer: Charles Dickens
· Cast: Patrick Stewart, Richard E. Grant
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| Series info |
· Based on A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens, from which many adaptations have sprung, including:
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Amazon.com
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| Synopsis |
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Patrick Stewart stars as worn old Ebenezer Scrooge, who redeems his miserly ways during a Christmas Eve visit from three spirits.
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RATING
Out of 100 |
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91
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| COLD ANALYSIS |
| 3.0 -ATMOSPHERE |
| 0.5 -GORE |
| 2.0 -HUMOR |
| 1.25 -SCARES |
| 1.25 -TENSION |
Patrick Stewart is an actor whose greatest strength is emotional realism; he seems to explore each character's motivations deeply and never fails to give a performance that is effective and true. His portrayal of Ebenezer Scrooge is no different. Other actors have made Scrooge a greedy automaton (an interesting interpretation by George C. Scott) or a larger-than-life crackpot (Albert Finney, I'm looking in your direction). Stewart makes him a man--a fascinating, real person. His Scrooge was hardened not by what life did to him, but by how he dealt with life, and by the choices he made or failed to make along the way. Stewart imbues Scrooge with a nobility, humor, and fear that is fitting, and his gradual progress from callousness to joyful giving is measured and deeply emotional. His eruption into joy at the end of the film is akin to an epiphany; it is the first time I have been swept along in Ebenezer's frenzied joy, and I have Stewart, with aid from his costars, to thank for it. Indeed, the supporting cast in this Christmas Carol, headed by Richard E. Grant as Bob Cratchit, is excellent. Memorable performances are given by Grant and also by Joel Grey, as a strangely menacing Ghost of Christmas Past (a nice spin on the character) and Desmond Barrit, who gives us an oddly melancholy Ghost of Christmas Present.
This isn't to say that this Carol doesn't play in a minor key occasionally. For one thing, the special effects are obviously the result of a television budget; they're a bit too fake to be effective, with the notable exception of a chilling scene of damned spirits haunting the London sky. But that is easily forgotten. The writing honors Dickens's story while enriching it--it keeps very close to the letter of Dickens's writing and pays perfect attention to the story's emotional depth--and the acting, led by the wonderful Mr. Patrick Stewart, help to make this a film I hope will become a holiday tradition.
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