‘A Christmas Carol’ (2020): An Artistic and Refreshingly Wholesome Take on Dickens’ Classic

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Over the years, many movies made reflect a growing trend amid studios looking to nab an easy profit. These are those productions that attempt to revive a classic tale or character but fail in attempting to make renowned intellectual properties both fresh and exciting.

Stories gravitating around figures like Mowgli, Robin Hood, or Sherlock Holmes feel like they’ve been done to death. I am happy to say this is not the sense one is met with in experiencing Jacqui and David Morris’astounding adaptation of Charles Dickens’ stirring novella.

Different Renditions of A Christmas Carol

Variants of the cinematic homage to A Christmas Carol have been made for more than a century, since the infantile steps of film history. Many notable actors have been enlisted in these. Out of an array of onscreen retellings of classic fantasies such as Moby Dick and Mysterious Island, Sir Patrick Stewart outdoes himself and offers somewhat of a bearable Ebenezer Scrooge in A Christmas Carol (1999). Although the 1984 take with George C. Scott in Scrooge’s shoes (and nightcap) is all the more triumphant.

The Man Who Invented Christmas, which explores how Dickens’ life might be intertwined with this Yuletide sensation, certainly offers a zesty revisiting of the classic. And who could forget the comedy Scrooged with the lovable Bill Murray?

But if there was one chief characteristic to define the new film version from Jacqui and David Morris, it might well be called brilliantly audacious.

Marks of Craftsmanship

As the film’s narrative unfolds, and children’s’ imaginations are enkindled, the characters awaken like puppets suddenly animated. It is an intriguingly beautiful way of bringing a story to life. It becomes quickly evident that what unfolds before our eyes is a fine combination of traditional stage and performance arts with the magic of modern cinematic effects.

For its raw onscreen performances, it might be comparable to the dramas of Oedipus Rex (1957) or even the recorded Broadway production of Hamilton that’s available on Disney+. The theatrical dimension of this production, giving way to the use of interpretive dance, shines throughout and makes for an enthralling picture. The way motion was employed in the film is astounding.

The use of illustrations, prints, and backdrops in the movie made for an aesthetic of merging textures and visuals. And Scrooge, in his counting chamber, appears to be situated within a snowglobe — flakes falling all around. For all its glitter, however, there are times when the magic of the visiting spirits seems to go a bit over the top. A prime example of this is the entrance of the Ghost of Christmas Present in which individual bands of different-colored lights emanate from beyond a closed door. I feel like I should be expecting a disco ball more than a spirit.

Its pacing and acting, unlike Hamilton, is perhaps a rapture that has to reel you in. In other words, it seeks dedication from the viewer more so than most mainstream films. Its dances slow and delicate, its on-screen actors apt at presenting their characters, A Christmas Carol features a good deal of fine choreography. The scene of Scrooge peering out of his window to see a host of tormented spirits stands out especially in concern to the unison among the performers. The symmetry here is undeniably well-done.

The Performances

When whisked away into various moments from his former life by the Ghost of Christmas Past, Simon Russell Beale’s Scrooge has a giddy disposition more often than not. There are times when, intangible, he sits viewing scenes from his youth, and rocks back and forth with his legs in a childlike manner. It makes for a delightful insight into Scrooge’s nature. No matter how crotchety the old miser might be, it doesn’t mean he can’t be inspired by the beauty of music and the warmth of jollity. None of the spirits’ visitations leave him untouched, and the next time we see him this giddy and ecstatic is in the film’s climax.