After about ten minutes I felt I could stand it no longer
and was about to turn it off, but then changed my mind because I was curious to
see just how bad it could get. It got startlingly bad, so let’s have some constructive criticism:
The script was depressingly unimaginative. The set design
and lighting was banal in the extreme. The first few minutes alone were replete
with glaring continuity errors. The costumes of the first and third spirits would
have suited a third rate pantomime. Much of the acting was alarmingly wooden
for what purported to be a professional production. In fact, most of the film
was about the standard of an average am-dram effort, and occasionally it
descended to a level which would have disappointed the director of a primary
school play. And the whole sorry saga was suffused with that brand of syrupy
mawkishness for which Hallmark is deservedly infamous.
The final scene showed us a happy Cratchit family about to
enter Ebenezer’s posh pad, no doubt in expectation of a slap-up dinner fit to
bring tears to the eyes of good Christians everywhere. And Tiny Tim sat on
Uncle Scrooge's shoulder to utter the immortal words ‘God bless us every one,’ while
I found myself warming to the pre-enlightened Scrooge after all.
The BBC is to show a new, darker, creepier version over
the three nights approaching Christmas. I intend to watch it in the hope that I
might be redeemed, as Scrooge himself is supposed to be. I’ll let you know if
it fails.
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