Monday, March 20, 2023

Scrooge: A Christmas Carol (2022)

IMDb plot summary: A supernatural, time-travelling, musical adaptation of Charles Dickens's cult Christmas story.
Directed by Stephen Donnelly. Starring Luke Evans, Olivia Colman, and Jessie Buckley.

Scrooge: A Christmas Carol is a loose adaptation of the Leslie Bricusse musical Scrooge first released in the 1970s with Albert Finney in the title role. A few songs from the original musical appear here, with the rest being, as far as I can tell, also composed by Bricusse, though I had a surprisingly difficult time finding that out. But there's almost nothing done here that isn't done better in the 1970 version -- and I don't even like the 1970 that much. The new songs are absolutely dismal, with instrumentation that feels jarringly out-of-place. The one thing that actually works about this movie is the character design of the Ghost of Christmas Past, a wax candle-like creature who can change her appearance, which lends itself to the best visual moments of the movie -- the only good ones, really. But overall it's a deeply uninspiring version of this story that tries too hard to beat its audience over the head with the "message" of the story, through really uninteresting musical numbers.

How it entered my Flickchart:
Scrooge: A Christmas Carol < Neighbors
Scrooge: A Christmas Carol > Warm Bodies
Scrooge: A Christmas Carol < Dr. No
Scrooge: A Christmas Carol > The Ides of March
Scrooge: A Christmas Carol < The Cat in the Hat (1971)
Scrooge: A Christmas Carol < The Howling
Scrooge: A Christmas Carol < House of Games
Scrooge: A Christmas Carol < Immortal Beloved
Scrooge: A Christmas Carol < Paint Your Wagon
Scrooge: A Christmas Carol > Benedetta
Scrooge: A Christmas Carol < Nine (2009)
Scrooge: A Christmas Carol < The Friends of Eddie Coyle
Final spot: #2593 out of 3777, or 31%.

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