Ebenezer

Grade: A-

Ebenezer is yet another adaptation of A Christmas Carol, in which unhappy miser Ebenezer Scrooge is visited by four spirits over the course of one night and awakens on Christmas morning redeemed, with a newfound love for the holiday, his fellow man, and life itself. This version plays like an endlessly fascinating fan fiction. New, creative, and clever choices are made, and existing storylines are expanded.

But don’t worry. It’s not a retcon. To the best of my knowledge and recollection, everything in this movie is consistent with what Charles Dickens put in the novella. I can’t think of an instance where one of these new choices negates anything in the source material. In other words, even though Dickens didn’t explicitly include it, what we see in Ebenezer COULD have happened in the world of the story.

For example, I’ve always wondered whether Bob Cratchit was working for Ebenezer Scrooge while Jacob Marley was still alive and working there as well. Screenwriter Nathaniel Halpern thinks so, as Ebenezer opens with all three men in the office. It’s an opportunity to see Ian McKellen play Marley in life, as Scrooge’s business partner, before he shows up again on Christmas Eve, seven years after his death.

I’m going to try not to have this review consist entirely of me naming examples of expansions, reimaginings, and other things I liked without elaborating, but I do want to preserve the surprises. Andrea Riseborough gives us a Ghost of Christmas Past like I’ve never seen before. I’ve heard different ideas about what happened to Fezziwig, but this one has never come up for me before. Tramell Tillman brings a refreshing take to the Ghost of Christmas Present, and when the Ghost of Christmas Future removes their hood, there will be gasps throughout the theater, as viewers realize who it is at different moments. There’s no voice-over narration, but title cards are displayed to indicate the various “staves” of the novella.

There’s also addition by subtraction, as a few moments I was bracing myself for are nowhere to be found. The Cratchit dinner scene is very short, and doesn’t include the business about the goose or the pudding. There’s no “Yes and No” game at Fred’s house, nor do we see a follow-up scene with the two charity men after Scrooge’s redemption.

This is the darkest A Christmas Carol I’ve ever seen, both in tone and atmosphere. Director Ti West, who made the recent X/Pearl/MaXXXine trilogy, usually dabbles in horror, and he plays up the dreary, sinister undertones of the narrative. We had a very hot summer this year where I live. I could have used this movie then. The persistently overcast, snowy settings would have had me thinking cold thoughts.

Rupert Grint does lovely work as Bob Cratchit. Ellie Bamber is effective and heartbreaking as Belle, the one that got away. Sam Claflin and Daisy Ridley bring just what is needed for Fred and his wife (she’s given the name Clara here). And carrying the story is Johnny Depp as Ebenezer Scrooge, who pulls off the difficult feat of being equally convincing as both the mean guy at the beginning and the joyous one at the end. As it’s Depp, there’s a twinge of playful smartassery both before and, especially, after his redemption. He has a very funny moment in an early scene, when a gravedigger burying Marley asks him a question in an incomprehensibly thick accent, and he responds with a confused “…What?” He speaks for the audience.

By the end, the darkness threatens to shatter the test tubes, and it begins to feel like Halpern is playing a game of seeing how many unique ideas he can shoehorn in. It almost wears thin, but stops just short of becoming silly. If you want a sunnier, more cheerful take on A Christmas Carol, go to George C. Scott or Kermit the Frog, then come here. But for what it is, I loved Ebenezer, and was constantly delighted by each new or newly explored turn. It’s the freshest this story has felt in years, and the emotional impact of its message landed for me as well as ever.

Grade: A-