Reviewed by: Bill Gibron of FilmCritic.com

Director: Robert Zemeckis
Producers: Jack Rapke, Steve Starkey & Robert Zemeckis
Screenwriter: Robert Zemeckis
Voice Actors: Jim Carrey, Gary Oldman, Cary Elwes, Colin Firth, Bob Hoskins, Robin Wright Penn
MPAA Rating: PG

FilmCritic.com Rating = 3 1/2 out of 5 Stars

“‘A Christmas Carol’, while inventive and often breathtaking, is burdened by one almost irredeemable flaw — its lead. It’s clear that Jim Carrey is no longer in command of his acting abilities.”

Jim Carrey is not the “star” of this latest update of the seminal Charles Dickens’ classic. Sure, he plays several roles, including all three Christmas ghosts (Past, Present, and Future) and the original Grinch himself, Ebenezer Scrooge. No, the real hero of this unique telling of this well known holiday tale is Robert Zemeckis and his newfound devotion to 3D CG animation. Following in the same cinematic footsteps as The Polar Express and Beowulf, the Oscar winning director does as much as he can to take an old Victorian morality tale and juice it up with plenty of action. No matter how hard he tries, the casting keeps getting in the way.

The story stays the same, however. Scrooge is still an incredible miser who thinks Christmas is a “hum-bug” — and he takes any and every opportunity to let a bleak and dismal London know it. He is particularly harsh on his only living relative, a well-meaning nephew Fred (Colin Firth) and his sole employee, a lowly clerk named Bob Cratchit (Gary Oldman). Late on December 24th, Scrooge is visited by the ghost of his dead partner Jacob Marley (Oldman again). The specter warns that he will be visited by three spirits, entities intending to take him on a journey through holidays long ago, current, and yet to be. It is here where we learn of Scrooge’s hard life as a child, the miserable state of the Cratchit home (including sick son Tiny Tim), and the dark and dire destiny that faces our sour skinflint, less he repent.

Read the full review by Bill Gibron at FilmCritic.com.

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