A Christmas Carol

Movie Title--  A Christmas Carol

Release Year--  2009

Running Time--  1 Hour and 36 Minutes

Director--  Robert Zemeckis

Cast--  Jim Carey, Gary Oldman, Colin Firth, Cary Elwes, Robin Wright Penn, Bob Hoskins

An old miser is visited by three spirits on Christmas Eve in hopes to change his ways before it is too late for his soul.

Christmas Eve 1836, Ebenezer Scrooge (Jim Carey) is with the undertaker, paying for burial services for his business partner Jacob Marley (Gary Oldman).  He is cold and crass over the whole business, even being so cheap as to take the coins from over Marley's eye's to make up for the loss he had to pay the undertaker.  As he makes his way back to his counting house "Scrooge and Marley", the people on the street do their best to try to avoid him or become silent in his presence.

Seven years later, Scrooge is working in his counting house with his employee Bob Cratchit (Gary Oldman).  Bob is bundled up trying to keep himself warm due to Scrooge's unwillingness to use enough coal to keep the shop warm.  He is eyeing the lock box that holds the coal when Scrooge's nephew Fred (Colin Firth) comes into the building.  Fred tells his uncle "Merry Christmas" and is met with a "Bah!  Humbug!" from Scrooge.  When Fred invites Scrooge for Christmas dinner, Scrooge refuses and puts down Fred's cheerfulness for the season.

As Fred leaves the building, two gentlemen enter and after exchanging greetings with Scrooge, request a donation from him for the poor.  When he is asked for the donation, Scrooge asks if the work houses and prisons are still in working order.  When the gentleman (Cary Elwes) answers that yes they are but most would rather die than go there, Scrooge suggests that they should then get to dying and decrease the "surplus population".  The two gentlemen then leave the shop without another word.

At the end of the day, as Scrooge is locking up shop, he tells Bob that he can have the whole day off for Christmas even though he feels like it is robbery to pay a man a full day's wages for not working.  He then tells Bob to be at work early the following day and Bob happily makes his way home through the streets of London as Scrooge slinks off to his own home.  While Scrooge is trying to open his front door, he drops his keys in the snow and when he stands back up to open the door, he is shocked to see the door knocker look's like Jacob Marley's face.  After a moment the vision is gone and he makes his way inside.

As Scrooge is settling down for bed the bells in his home begin to ring on their own and the doorknob to his bedroom begins to turn.  Suddenly a large spectral lock box flies through the door and lands at Scrooges feet, accompanied by a few more and finally the specter that is attached to it by heavy iron chains.  The specter reveals that in life he was known a Jacob Marley and he is there to warn Scrooge of his fate in the afterlife if he does not change his ways.  Marley tells Scrooge that his chains are heavy and long and that Scrooge's where heavier and even longer than his own.

Marley then tells Scrooge that he can still redeem himself and after initially not believing that Marley is real, Scrooge asks him how it can come to be.  Marley then tells Scrooge that three spirits will come to visit him; the ghost of Christmas past (Jim Carey), the ghost of Christmas present (Jim Carey) and the ghost of Christmas yet to come (Jim Carey) and that only by seeing how his life has developed and heeding their warnings will he be able to change his fate.

I have mixed feelings about this film.  There are a lot of things I like about it while at the same time there are a lot of things I don't like about it.  Although I don't feel like Jim Carey does a bad job at the same time I feel like they could have selected a lot better actor, preferably British, to play the part of Scrooge.  Carey's serious parts are very serious but it is too often broken up by a humorous phrase, funny face or strange movement.  "A Christmas Carol" is meant to teach a serious lesson about how the actions in your life effect your afterlife and to always keep kindness and charity close to your heart but in order to get viewers for this animated film, there are zany and over the top humorous moments that seem to drown out the seriousness of the story.

My least favorite character in this film is the ghost of Christmas present.  The constant laughing and over zealous spirit tends to wear a person's nerves a little thin at times.  Also the facial animation freaks me out a little bit.  I am not sure exactly what it is about the faces in this film that I dislike so much but they are just strange.

I also don't think this film is for small children.  "A Christmas Carol" is meant to be dark, it is a story about how the consequences of a person's actions affect what becomes of them later in life and although this film is animated, it does have more than a few very dark moments.  I think this film is not really suitable for younger children, and ten and eleven may even be too young for this film.

Make your own decision when it comes to this film but whatever you do, Don't Forget the Popcorn!