‘Humbug…’
I must begin by making it clear just how deeply I love A Christmas Carol. I love the Muppets version. I love Scrooged. I love that little nightcap that Scrooge often wears. I just love the whole damn thing. It might just be the greatest story ever told. A Christmas Carol has it all. Redemption, ghosts, prize turkeys, undigested bits of beef – what more could you want in a story? So, the decision to take Charles Dickens’ mesmerising prose and toss it all in the bin in favour of a total rewrite was never going to sit well with this chubby little funster. And I must admit there were certain things I struggled with throughout, but we’ll come to those later.
I shan’t patronise you, dear reader, by going over the plot of A Christmas Carol, being as it is, one of the most famous stories ever told. Instead, let us begin with the positives. Guy Pearce makes for a suitably sinister Ebenezer Scrooge. This iteration is much more unpleasant than any that have come before, and also represents a clearer attack on the idea of capitalism than all the other adaptations have managed. Dickens himself would be proud. Pearce embodies the old tight-fisted hand at the grindstone Scrooge in a way that is all encompassing and truly memorable. His face stuck in a permanent scowl whilst still capturing the veneer of civility that ensures that Scrooge is never vulgar (although he does drop a couple of F-bombs) but always cold and calculating. The casting elsewhere is patchy, however. Andy Serkis hams it up a little too much at times as the Ghost of Christmas Past but mostly stays on the right side of panto, Stephen Graham is a wonderful actor but is woefully miscast here as Jacob Marley and Joe Alwyn is forgettable as the supposed proud and humble everyman Bob Cratchit. I just found him a little annoying. Frankly, I’d rather go for a beer with Scrooge.
Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight ensures that this is by far the darkest run through of A Christmas Carol ever – by order of the particularly terrifying Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come – but this sometimes comes at the detriment of the overall message. The subplot around Scrooge and Mary Cratchit felt like a step too far even for one of the archetypal villains of Victorian literature. We had already seen that Scrooge was personally responsible for the deaths of men, women and children during a collapse in a coal mine, so resorting to sleazy Scrooge to sell his malevolence just felt… weird.
Having said that, there is no doubt that warping Dickens’ beloved novella to this extent was a brave move and it does result in some truly memorable moments. With a bit more restraint this could have perhaps misplaced Muppets Christmas Carol as the best version of this classic tale. As it is, it will probably have to settle for a place on the podium rather than a gold medal. Scrooge will be disappointed. Bronze isn’t worth nearly as much…