ArthouseSchmarthouse’s review published on Letterboxd:
5.5
Disney+
Not a total disaster-- this is a solid, fairly faithful adaptation of the classic Dickens story; and if you ignore the human characters, the backdrops and general make-up of the digital world is, I think, pretty well done. However it is the case that the human characters are pretty uncanny valley at best and at worst just plain goddamn WEIRD. Scrooge looks pretty okay, but Colin Firth's character looks like an overly shiny, fun-house mirror, nightmare-fuel version of Colin Firth... Gary Oldman, on the other hand, is almost unrecognisable and weirdly proportioned... same for Bob Hoskins... the thing is that this might all work if Zemeckis leant into the weirdness a bit more, but A CHRISTMAS CAROL's biggest failing is, arguably, its po-faced seriousness. This is exemplified by Jim Carrey who, a handful of scenes where he is allowed to be silly aside, seems to be trying very hard for Respectful Gravitas, and it doesn't ever quite work. This is especially the case when he is also trying to do accents, such as Irish (Ghost of Christmas Past, who incidentally is such a surreal lil freak in this) and, most incredibly, Yorkshire (Ghost of Christmas Present). There are a handful of decent action sequences-- the bit where Scrooge shrinks down the mouse-size whilst being pursued is especially effective and a good use of the mo-cap tech. But overall this is a bit of an unfortunate mess, Zemeckis uncertain whether he wants to do serious adaptation or tech demo.
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