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RATING:  
SINGAPORE: Hardly a stranger to anyone, Charles Dickens’ timeless literary tale of an old miser Ebenezer Scrooge, whose frosty personality is in stark contrast against Christmas, the most joyous occasion of the year, gets another remake.
This film by Academy-Award winning director Robert Zemeckis manages to bring something new to this timeless classic which has seen numerous screen adaptations from Mr Magoo in 1962 to The Muppets in 1992.
Shot entirely in 3D, this heart-warming Christmas-themed morality fable in existence stays faithful to Dickens’ plot but is brought alive by the use of motion-capture technology which Zemeckis made famous in his 2004 yuletide film “The Polar Express” and his 2007 film “Beowulf”, an Anglo-English epic poem of the same name.
To create the impressive visual masterpiece in “A Christmas Carol”, the technique requires the cast to go through the physical motions before their actions are converted digitally.
Jim Carrey, who was also in a similar Christmas party-pooper role in Dr Seuss’s “How The Grinch Who Stole Christmas”, is back with a vengeance as the grumpy and sinister protagonist Ebenezer Scrooge.
For the uninitiated, Scrooge is the patron saint of unbelievable greed and shrewdness with a disdain for the poor and a greater disdain for the frivolity of Christmas.
Carrey also lends his voice to the three ghosts of Christmas past, present and future; with each one trying to melt the scrawny aged miser’s cold heart hardened by egoism. They give him a last shot of redemption by showing the error of his ways.
The opening scene of a magic-carpet ride capturing the beautiful panoramic view of Dickens’ Victorian London will no doubt draw an early Christmas cheer.
Details and dimensions of the architecture from this bygone era are portrayed authentically and this realism extends to the intricately-crafted countenance of Scrooge’s, aged with lines and reflective of his current emotions.
An all-star cast includes Gary Oldman, who plays Scrooge’s faithful, long-suffering clerk Bob Cratchit, and Colin Firth as his cheery nephew Fred, but the motion-capture technology makes it difficult to recognise anyone at first glance.
Far from being a ‘bah-humbug’ light-hearted kiddy animation, “A Christmas Carol” is deceptively dark and menacingly scary at times.
The view of numerous floating ghosts all chained up and writhing in torment, Scrooge’s deceased business partner Marley’s ghost as his jaw grotesquely cracks apart, the children of Ignorance and Want and the reaper-like ghost of Christmas Future managed to restore terror in me as I found myself tightening my grip around the cinema chair.
It would be an understatement to say that this un-Disneylike 3D film adaptation of “A Christmas Carol” will be a tad upsetting to young children.
So for parents thinking that this film will fill their kids with the Christmas spirit, you might have to give it a second thought about its scary images, in addition to the long sequences of 19th century-era English dialogue.
However, literature purists would be glad that Zemeckis did not dilute the dialogue with simplified expressions as it was in full respect to the originality of Dickens’ literary craft.
Still, despite the film’s outright unnerving scenes made genuine by the cinematography’s latest technology, this faithful remake of the 150 year-old classic serves as a reminder to many that the Yuletide season is not all about money and commercialism (even if it is rampant these days) and will remain long in everyone’s hearts for many Christmases to come.
- CNA/il
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