thomas4cinema

the story is about Ebenezer Scrooge who … now come on, it’s the Christmas Carol! Which has been produced “Zemeckis style” one could say, in the technology already uesed for Polar Express, with scenes being filmed and then overlayed with computer-animated 3D rendered graphics, motion-capture technology, I guess they call it. The look is better than it was in Polar Express (for which I did not care at all, to the point that I never even wanted to see it), it is soft and lively, Scrooge’s features are worn out and his cheeks red and old… a very vivd imagery. What’s always decisive about “Scrooge” movies are the ghosts, and these are quite good, too: Christmas Past being a bit of a nondescript candle light, but Christmas Present having good stature and a massive red Barbarossa beard. Christmas Yet To Come is the regular Father Death creature, maybe not played to full grisly effect because of the child audiences the film is targeting. The atmosphere created around Scrooge’s increasing desperation is impressive: dark scenes, sad funeral parlors, creepy graveyards, tear-jerking sitting rooms where Tiny Tim is missing and his crutch is the constant reminder of the missing piece of flesh in this family’s life.
And Jim Carey, as so often, is brilliant in giving life to all these characters. Witty, goofy, terrified, old and mourning, young and refreshed, all in very short order and sometimes at the same time. It is a joyful watch because of this, not anywhere near my favourite Scrooge film (which, of course, is “Scrooged”)

A Christmas Carol (2009).