'Christmas Carol' lost in 3-D interpretation
11/06/2009 12:19:00 PM
kenmouse
, Posted in
Charles Dickens was hardly a master of subtlety, but it's hard to imagine he would appreciate this frenetic, in-your-face and vapid interpretation of his classic holiday tale, A Christmas Carol.While faithful to some aspects of Dickens' original, director Robert Zemeckis takes a story rich in nuance and renders it one-dimensional, more antic than thrilling.
The main thing that distinguishes this re-telling is its technique – in 3-D, using motion-capture technology. What this means to the audience is mostly a lot of swooping – roller-coaster-style – over and around the rooftops of London. The soaring initially is exhilarating, but used repeatedly it becomes monotonous.
While the technology may allow for more whiz-bang effects, it flattens emotional complexity. One of the main problems with motion capture is how it wrings the life out of faces. Rather than resembling their real-life counterparts, characters have an inhuman appearance.
Jim Carrey plays several parts: He's Ebenezer Scrooge, as well as the ghosts of Christmases past, present and future. In the process, he runs through a range of accents and attitudes. But lots of acting doesn't equal good acting.
As anyone surely knows, Scrooge is a nasty miser. He hates Christmas and everyone who celebrates it. In Dickens' tale, Scrooge is offered a chance at redemption when visited by supernatural forces.
The ghosts who visit Scrooge are surprisingly humdrum. Perhaps the most annoying is the spirit of Christmas present. As played by Carrey, he spends most of his time guffawing.
The film focuses on the fantastical, at the cost of narrative depth and character development. Scrooge's failed romance with Belle (Robin Wright Penn) was deeply scarring. In this incarnation, their heartbreak is rendered as matter-of-factly as a business deal gone sour.
A re-telling should either present a resonant or fresh thematic take. This Christmas Carol seems like a pale ghost of Dickens' magical Christmas classic.
Jim Carrey is full of surprises and the entire movie is a theatrical outburst of his talent, under the brilliant direction of Robert Zemeckis. Brilliant because it manages to make take the Dickens story and walk us through all its dimensions, without fear of sadness and, in the same time, he has the cold blood to use the magic wand for a happy end. I wasn't a big 3D fan until this movie, maybe because I didn't see any possibility to enrich the classical format, perfect as it became with the years... 'A Christmas Carol' gains a lot from 3D being a sensorial experience enhanced by IMAX technology.
All in all, it's not a story for kids, because it's rather disturbing and contemplative. Gary Oldman's pointing finger will stay with you for a while... It's an enchanting story and I encourage you to go and see it.