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kermit-32
Reviews
A Christmas Carol (1999)
A nice, if sadly flawed, production.
This production starts with a scene which demonstrates the subtle flaws that permeate this production of A CHRISTMAS CAROL. We open at Marley's burial in a cemetary in an apparently open countryside. Since Scrooge was the beneficiary of Marley's estate and both lived in London this scene would contradict Scrooge's miserly ways and leaves the London setting that was so central to the story.
Patrick Stewart, normally a superlative actor, almost walks through his performance here. You don't believe him to be nearly old as Scrooge should be for a second. His transformation after the visitations seems more of an outburst of hysterical madness than happiness. I really wanted to believe in Stewart as Scrooge - but the camera work often worked against him as well making him appear disconnected from the action around him.
The London sets also fail to live up to the richness of detail shown in the 1951 Scrooge that starred Alistair Sim. The details that were shown and suggested in that film make this production pale in comparison with it's almost sterile depiction of London.
Sadly the director also fails in many places throughout this film. In addition to everything indicated above, there is also a regrettable tendency to use showy wipes and transitions that detract from the story. In particular the circular wipes, used when the Ghost of Christmas Future is indicating the two scenes of the future, are horribly jarring and remind you of the deliberately stylized wipes used in Star Wars when complete changes of scene were made.
After watching this production I had to go watch the 1951 Scrooge to remind myself of just how powerful this story can be when placed in the right hands.