Rascal
Posts: 153
Joined: 30/9/2005
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Seen it now!
This is a really weird adaption. In some respects, incredibly -- almost uniquely -- faithful to the source material, in others, really strangely, not (Scrooge shrinking -- no, really -- et al).
On the whole, the tone is most definitely very dark -- I'd be reluctant to take my kids to see this (specially if they were of a sensitive disposition). It's as if Zemickis is on a mission to restore the sort of rigorous Victorian horror and melodrama to the heart of the story, which whilst admirable, created, for me at least, a really uneven discordance between some throwaway whimsy (for the kids), and some genuinely disconcerting moments of peril and nastiness -- all exacerbated by the un-wordly look of the whole thing. The style of the CGI really serves to suck the humanity out of the characters, and by turns, the story -- in a strange twist of logic, the more real the animation becomes, the less human it seems. There is so little warmth here, and so little to connect to, that it's really hard to feel the legendary triumph when the story reaches its denouement, without which, it's a bit of a dud. Much of Dicken's detail remains, but for me, there was an overwhelming sense that the film misses the point ever so slightly. Dickens cannily inserts little beats throughout the narrative, whereby Scrooge is given cause to refer what he is shown throughout his experiences with the spirits, to his behaviour in the first act: this is excised in the film, and it suffers for it. Also, if Scrooge never gets to spend much time with Fred and Topper on Christmas Day, where's the warmth (and milk of human kindness, which is also missing), and where does he find motivation to change? The whole enlightenment of the character is broadly speaking fumbled -- and Dicken's suggestion about the potency of Christmas and its ability to bind people, and draw the good from them, is also missed, which is surely, kind of the point.
On a technical note, I was really frustrated by the poorness of some of the accent work. Carrey's Scrooge is pass-able, but to an English ear, most of the rest of it is utterly risible (with the obvious exceptions of Hoskins, Firth and Oldman).
As an IMAX experience, I quite liked it (I'm a sucker for all that swooping camera shit -- though am happy to admit it's not *cinema* per se), but I can't say I'll be recommending this film to anyone. I'd suggest a repeat trip to the Polar Express to any IMAX junkies -- does the same thing, but just sort of works better.
Oh, and camp Oirish accent aside, I have to say that the visual representation of the Ghost of Christmas Past is the most faithful I've seen.
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A Christmas Carol - 
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