Last year, I listened to A Christmas Carol narrated by Patrick Stewart. After reading the original novella by Dickens and then listening to it again narrated by Tim Curry, I wanted to dive into the visual side of things with a serious start. There were so many options to choose from that I decided to stick to something that I was semi-familiar with. So Patrick Stewart as Scrooge it was.
This movie definitely takes liberties, mainly in padding out scenes merely alluded to in Dicken’s novella. But the director didn’t try to change the spirit of things. To me, that’s important.
Of course, Patrick Stewart being Ebenezer Scrooge takes center stage. I thought he did a fantastic job. From the beginning at the burial scene of Jacob Marley, Stewart projected that tightfisted, angry, self-centered and utterly materialistic man of the world. His facial expressions never wavered, never let the audience forget just what kind of man Ebenezer Scrooge was. And yet, just like in the story, I could SEE Scrooge changing as the night went on. It takes a consummate actor to display such little changes without coming across as hamming it.
The story is short and so thus is the movie. It’s done before it even started. I sat down to watch it and boom, it was over! I like that. No messing around, just tell the story and move on with your life. More movies should take the hint.
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