THE STORY – In early Victorian London, miserly businessman Ebenezer Scrooge is forced through visions of the past, present, and future during a supernatural journey toward a chance at redemption.
THE CAST – Johnny Depp, Rupert Grint, Andrea Riseborough, Sam Claflin, Daisy Ridley, Arthur Conti, Ellie Bamber, Henry Lloyd-Hughes, Charlie Murphy, Tramell Tillman & Ian McKellen
THE TEAM – Ti West (Director) & Nathaniel Halpern (Writer)
THE RUNNING TIME – 116 Minutes
Since its publication in 1843, Charles Dickens’s “A Christmas Carol” has never gone out of print. Translated into over forty languages, the beloved novella has been adapted for stage and screen dozens, if not hundreds, of times since the dawn of the twentieth century. Dickens’s timeless story of the miserly Ebenezer Scrooge re-learning how to experience joy through kindness after a Christmas Eve haunting by the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Future has an elemental simplicity that makes it incredibly easy to adapt to different settings, styles, and performers. Scrooge is one of the most enticing characters for any actor to play, and few roles in the English-language canon can say that have been portrayed onscreen by such varied performers as Reginald Owen, Michael Caine, Jim Carrey, and Vanessa Williams (not to mention seemingly every major animated character on TV).
With this in mind, it was perhaps inevitable that Johnny Depp would choose this part for his big Hollywood comeback vehicle after years relegated to European slop following the scorched-earth domestic abuse trial between him and ex-wife Amber Heard. A beloved piece of IP with a surefire holiday box-office window, and a part that lets the actor pull all kinds of faces and funny voices while playing one of the most famous redemption arcs in all literature? And it can ride the zeitgeist of anticorruption and wealth disparity by emphasizing those themes already present in the story? An irresistible prospect for any actor, to be sure, but particularly for one in need of a bit of image rehabilitation.
Ti West’s new film of “A Christmas Carol,” adapted by “Tales From the Loop” creator Nathaniel Halpern, takes the bold step of being named “Ebenezer,” announcing itself as a definitive take on the character, one that will go deeper into his story than ever before. That’s a tall order, perhaps an even taller one than Depp has in making the role his own. With the dozens of different versions of “A Christmas Carol” in the public consciousness, nearly everyone has an idea of Scrooge in their heads, and there’s hardly an aspect of his character that hasn’t been explored in depth over the years. While Halpern does make some small changes to the story that mostly work well, the biggest addition comes in the most obvious, least interesting place. Unwilling or unable to push the story’s “eat the rich” angle as far as possible, Halpern goes in the other direction, making Scrooge’s redemption arc all about two women: his sister, Fan, and his one true love, Belle (Ellie Bamber). While there’s potential in this idea that could make the material more boldly contemporary, “Ebenezer” squanders it.
This choice also has the unfortunate side effect of making Ebenezer’s eventual turn feel much more shallow. Scrooge has become a miserable old man because of the lack of love in his life, true, but he pushed all potential for love away because he became consumed by greed. That greed is the character’s defining trait, but in “Ebenezer”, we don’t see much evidence of it. This Ebenezer is more of a cynic, someone who believes everyone is out to get one over on others and who has been proven right enough times that he’s hardened his heart to everyone. Being reminded of the women he loved and lost (in different ways), and how much they still mean to him, awakens his more feminine instincts, causing him to care about other people in a way he hasn’t for decades. On its face, this isn’t a bad arc; it’s just a far more conventional, easily digestible arc than what Dickens originally wrote. A story about a man reckoning with how his actions have caused him unhappiness is most impactful when he realizes he has no one to blame but himself. With the way “Ebenezer” emphasizes its story beats, though, it comes perilously close to blaming its main character’s unhappiness on the two women in his life.
With Depp in the role, it’s hard to read “Ebenezer” as anything but a half-hearted apology to audiences: When Ebenezer screams in terror to the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come, “I am not who I once was,” we are clearly meant to hear this as coming from the actor, too. In theory, it’s a moving moment, fusing actor and character together to build an emotional beat fantastically larger than life. In practice, however, it doesn’t work in that way, because Depp can’t stop himself from going overboard. Ever the kooky character actor, Depp revels in the part’s extremes, taking malevolent glee in shooing people away in the opening scenes, sinking to mournful depths as the ghosts who haunt his life, and brimming over with childish joy in the final scene on Christmas Day. Playing these extremes so broadly makes the character’s turn feel slightly unbelievable, as Ebenezer seems like an entirely different person in the final sequence. His mannerisms, and even his voice, give the impression that Scrooge has regressed to his younger self. While that’s true on an emotional level, manifesting it so strongly in the performance makes it feel, well, performative. It feels like Ebenezer himself is putting on an act, but the film keeps insisting he’s sincere, drowning the finale in treacly sweetness.
With Depp doing his thing in the lead, it would be very easy for the rest of the cast to feel unmemorable in comparison. Thankfully, they’re up to the task, clearly having a grand old time stepping into these iconic characters. Rupert Grint is the perfect Everyman Bob Cratchit, and he builds a warm, realistic marriage with Charlie Murphy. Sam Claflin has the job of selling us on Ebenezer’s inherent value as a person as his nephew, and he does so with loving forthrightness. As his wife, Daisy Ridley steals both scenes she’s in with impeccable comic timing (the only moments of humor in the film that unequivocally work). Ellie Bamber’s appealing screen presence shines like a light in the darkness, a bright North Star for Ebenezer (if only he would follow it).
The ghosts are always the parts people look forward to the most, though, rich as they are with the opportunity to do something interesting. West, who doesn’t lean into the horror elements quite as much as he could (the half-hearted attempts at jump scares may work for children but certainly not anyone past puberty), had his design teams come up with looks that honor Dickens while adding something new. Andrea Riseborough’s Ghost of Christmas Past is a blank-eyed ghost bride still in her wedding dress, suggesting a story that might move Ebenezer but never breathing a word of it. Meanwhile, Tramell Tillman’s Ghost of Christmas Present slowly decays the longer he shows Ebenezer how others are enjoying the holiday, visualized by the leaves that adorn his crown. The vision of the twin ghosts Want and Ignorance inside him is the closest West gets to making a full-on horror version of the story, enough to make you wish he had gone further.
Unfortunately, that other, meaner, better version remains just out of reach throughout “Ebenezer.” Eve Stewart’s storybook sets and Catherine George’s well-crafted costumes give the film a classic Christmastime feel, with subtle Burton-esque touches that hint at the story’s more macabre aspects, without fully embracing its more fantastical elements. Tyler Bates’s score bounces back and forth between romantic Christmas melodies and Gothic foreboding, but it feels as overblown as Depp’s performance, overegging the most emotional moments. Most infuriatingly, West has cast the perfect Scrooge in the wrong part: Sir Ian McKellen, who has yet to play Scrooge (at least onscreen), makes an appearance as his business partner, Jacob Marley. The venerated actor’s inimitable voice is on full display, spitting out insults laced with venom and the solemnity of a Shakespearean tragedy. It’s a fabulously, bitterly nasty performance, and the subtlety McKellen brings to Marley’s care for Ebenezer speaks volumes. It’s more than enough to make you long to see his take on Scrooge, and mad that Depp’s take on Ebenezer feels so toothless in comparison. The time is ripe for a “Christmas Carol” adaptation that really lets that miserly bastard have it, but “Ebenezer” ain’t it.
