SPOILERS AHEAD
As a Dickens buff I watch all the new productions based on his works. "A Christmas Carol" has been done to death by repetition, with every shady character in every sitcom being "Scrooged" one way or another. But certain things about Dickens never seem to seep into most productions, including this one.
This production is certainly one of the most elegant, showing details impossible in many previous productions, such as the details on Scrooge's hearth and the infamous "extinguisher cap." In that, it is the most accurate of productions.
Patrick Stewart throws his heart into becoming Scrooge, looking younger and balder than most. His is a masculine Scrooge, able to get around without shuffling, and standing up to ghosts better than most. Stewart's is superior to the flat George C. Scott performance or that of the cloying (though famous) Alistair Sim. Richard E. Grant is not like the typical Bob Cratchit (i.e., David Collings in "Scrooge" or David Warner in Scott's 1985 version). Ian McNeice's Fezziwig surprising leaves lots to be desired; it would have thought this production might use someone like Richard Pearson. McNeice is capable of, but does not exhibit here, the necessary warmth or bonhomie.
Joel Grey, on the other hand, is (again, surprisingly) accurate as the Spirit of Christmas Past. An old/young, short and shining man.
However, what's missing in this production, as in so many, is Dickens' great humor. Admittedly, as in Wodehouse, most of Dickens' humor rises from his word choice rather than what he depicts (perhaps he discovered with PICKWICK his comic episodes aren't all that comic after all so he relied on language). Dickens is able to describe the most bitter episodes in his fiction in a way to raise at least a sardonic smile. That was what was most disappointing in the Sim version. Sim was an actor of enormous comic potential, but his "Christmas Carol" was too po-faced. Frankly, so is this one.
Though David Warner was notable in the 1985 Scott version, far better than Grant, the only real alternative for Dickens' humor is the Albert Finney "Scrooge" (despite the liberties it takes with the text and dodgy "special effects"; and though the songs range from brilliant to utterly insipid with nothing in between!) And Albert Finney is able to bring in his performance of both the young and old Scrooge the Dickensian humor Stewart lacks.
One more thing "A Christmas Carol" productions usually lack, including this one, is Fred's line "I have always thought of Christmas time, when it has come round-apart from the veneration due to its sacred name and origin, if anything belonging to it can be apart from that-as a good time . . ." In no production is the "sacred origin" of Christmas played up, and its absence makes Scrooge's conversion a bit hollow and perhaps a "humbug" to fool even Death.
This production is certainly one of the most elegant, showing details impossible in many previous productions, such as the details on Scrooge's hearth and the infamous "extinguisher cap." In that, it is the most accurate of productions.
Patrick Stewart throws his heart into becoming Scrooge, looking younger and balder than most. His is a masculine Scrooge, able to get around without shuffling, and standing up to ghosts better than most. Stewart's is superior to the flat George C. Scott performance or that of the cloying (though famous) Alistair Sim. Richard E. Grant is not like the typical Bob Cratchit (i.e., David Collings in "Scrooge" or David Warner in Scott's 1985 version). Ian McNeice's Fezziwig surprising leaves lots to be desired; it would have thought this production might use someone like Richard Pearson. McNeice is capable of, but does not exhibit here, the necessary warmth or bonhomie.
Joel Grey, on the other hand, is (again, surprisingly) accurate as the Spirit of Christmas Past. An old/young, short and shining man.
However, what's missing in this production, as in so many, is Dickens' great humor. Admittedly, as in Wodehouse, most of Dickens' humor rises from his word choice rather than what he depicts (perhaps he discovered with PICKWICK his comic episodes aren't all that comic after all so he relied on language). Dickens is able to describe the most bitter episodes in his fiction in a way to raise at least a sardonic smile. That was what was most disappointing in the Sim version. Sim was an actor of enormous comic potential, but his "Christmas Carol" was too po-faced. Frankly, so is this one.
Though David Warner was notable in the 1985 Scott version, far better than Grant, the only real alternative for Dickens' humor is the Albert Finney "Scrooge" (despite the liberties it takes with the text and dodgy "special effects"; and though the songs range from brilliant to utterly insipid with nothing in between!) And Albert Finney is able to bring in his performance of both the young and old Scrooge the Dickensian humor Stewart lacks.
One more thing "A Christmas Carol" productions usually lack, including this one, is Fred's line "I have always thought of Christmas time, when it has come round-apart from the veneration due to its sacred name and origin, if anything belonging to it can be apart from that-as a good time . . ." In no production is the "sacred origin" of Christmas played up, and its absence makes Scrooge's conversion a bit hollow and perhaps a "humbug" to fool even Death.