As it was actually imagined?

Some good friends of mine, when they were kids, had a Christmas tradition I envied. Their father would, every Christmas Eve, read aloud Dickens' A Christmas Carol. It is by far my favorite fictional Christmas story. It has been filmed many times. The 1951 Alastair Sim version has long been my favorite. A new film of the book is in the theaters. Directed by Robert Zemeckis — who was responsible for the Back to the Future films and, more recently, for Polar Express — and starring Jim Carrey, it hasn't been doing as well as expected at the box office. Some reviewers think it too scary for kids and others that the story is overwhelmed by special effects. Both of those criticisms tend to make it more attractive to me. It should be scary and I usually really like special effects. I haven't seen it yet but this unusually favorable review appeared at Big Hollywood and revived my interest. Excerpts:

When it comes to celebrating Christmas, actor Jim Carrey says he prefers the “Christian” traditions he and many other people in America grew up on as children.

“I’d hate to miss Christmas,” he added.

Carrey, who gives a remarkable performance in A Christmas Carol, the new brilliant masterpiece of the beloved novel by Charles Dickens from Disney and Writer/Director Bob Zemeckis, spoke about the movie at a recent press conference Movieguide attended in Los Angeles.

At the conference, Carrey also noted that he loves redemptive stories like A Christmas Carol.

“Everyone loves a good transformational story,” Carrey said. “You know, somebody who sees the light, who finally finds out what’s important in life. And, this is one of the greatest ones ever written. It’s just a beautiful story of redemption.” ....

Zemeckis noted, “The book hadn’t been realized before in the way that it was actually imagined by Dickens as he wrote it. I said, okay, this could be a perfect way to take a classic story everyone is familiar with and re-envision it in a new and exciting way.”

And indeed, the movie, which should become a Christmas classic, brilliantly takes moviegoers back to a bygone era, Victorian London, with amazingly detailed set designs.

The motion capture technology also allows the filmmakers and actors to interact in new ways with the world envisioned by Zemeckis through Dickens, including the wonderful special effects of ghosts, spirits, and supernatural events that Dickens describes. ....

It is the three spirits who teach Scrooge the real reason for the season, Jesus Christ and his salvation message of love, in this terrific, beautiful, powerful family movie. .... [more]

Big Hollywood » Blog Archive » Actor Jim Carrey Favors Traditional Christmas Celebrations and Transformational Redemptive Storytelling