As a character, Scrooge is right up there with Superman in how often his character has reappeared in popular culture over time.  Spirited, the latest adaptation of A Christmas Carol, certainly isn’t among the best adaptation of his story.  (The Alastair Sim movie from 1951 and Bill Murray’s Scrooged are my personal favorites.)  However, through its belated emphasis on the original story’s themes of repentance and redemption, the movie works as a Christmas movie, even if only marginally.

For better or worse, Spirited isn’t content with giving us another version of Scrooge being put through his expected paces.  Instead, it significantly expands the mythology of the original story by explaining that Scrooge’s experience wasn’t unique.  Instead, he was just one of a long line of people (the characters refer to them as “perps”) who were haunted and were forced to reckon with their past, present and a future yet-to-be.  Every year, the operation selects a bad person who, if they are redeemed, will have a positive “ripple” on the people in their lives.  This operation is not unlike a live television production, with a huge staff of people wearing headsets and/or staring at monitors throughout.  It’s an intriguing premise that the movie should have used as more than an elaborate framing device.

After witnessing the results of the operation’s latest project, where Karen (Rose Byrne) becomes a nice “Karen”, we learn about the ghosts responsible for the transformation.  Jacob Marley (Patrick Page) oversees the operation, which is led by his three field agents, the ghosts of Christmas Present (Will Ferrell), Past (Sunita Mani) and Future (voice of Tracy Morgan).  Present has been in his role for the past forty-six years, which is unusual because after a certain point a ghost can retire to a life among the living.  Marley has given Present the option to retire before, but he keeps turning it down for reasons yet-to-be revealed.

Another bizarre aspect of the world-building within this movie is that the haunting is very high-tech.  The perps don’t actually travel back and forth in time, but are placed within complex  situations not unlike the holodeck on Star Trek.  And as if that wasn’t enough, this world where the operations are staged is a “musical world”, meaning that employees can spontaneously break into song-and-dance numbers.

The perp initially selected for the next season is a mean hotel manager, but Present is drawn to Clint Briggs (Ryan Reynolds), a media consultant who will do whatever is necessary for his clients to win, ethics be damned.  For example, he tells the Christmas Tree Grower’s Union that he’ll get people to buy natural trees over artificial ones by making the choice a culture war issue.  If you’re pro-natural trees, you’re on the side of traditional American family values, while those who opt for convenience are demonized.  Considering what I see on social media on a daily basis, I’m guessing that corporations already use this strategy.

Marley balks at the Present’s suggestion of redeeming Clint because he’s been flagged as unredeemable, which is stamped on his file in big red letters.  Present insists because if they can turn Briggs, the impact (or ripples) of his conversion will be wide-spread.  Marley reluctantly agrees and the operation is set into motion.   While the ghosts gather research on Briggs, it becomes clear that cracking Clint won’t be easy because he views the world with a level of cynicism that Ryan Reynolds has perfected.  When Clint’s niece Wren comes looking for help with her campaign for student council president, her uncle recommends a smear campaign against her opponent.  All that matters to Clint is destroying the opposition on behalf of his clients, even when the target is an eighth grader.

When Clint’s top operative, Kimberly (Octavia Spencer), finds just the thing to sabotage Wren’s opponent, Clint tells Wren to send it out at the right time to make her victory a certainty.  Present watches dumbstruck while Kimberly laments how her job has reduced her to digging up dirt on a kid.  To their mutual surprise, she can see him, and they exchange pleasantries before Past forces him to leave.  (This subplot makes more sense when the movie’s big reveal comes about midway through.)

Now that the ghosts have everything they need on Clint, they set the plan into motion and Past goes out to do her thing.  Past, however, is a feeling randy and hooks up with Clint instead.  (First, that encounter takes place off-screen.  Second, when she describes Reynolds as “smokin’ hot”, I figured Reynolds got this added to the script as a producer.)  Since Past has breached operation protocol, Present steps in.  The problem is that Clint grew up with a mother who lied to him, so he never takes anything at face value.  He realizes he’s in a version of the movie Scrooged (the movie’s obvious influence), and nothing Present does breaks through his cynicism, not even the moment when Clint turned down his sister’s dying wish.

Faced with his redemption of Clint failing miserably, Present changes course and tells Clint who he was before he became Present.  The movie doesn’t try very hard to keep this secret, considering the hints given along the way.  However, once the cat is out of the bag, the movie gains some momentum and unleashes its best song, “Good Afternoon”.  (Interpret that phrase as the olden times equivalent of f-you.)  From this point on, it’s only a matter of time until Clint realizes the errors of his ways and becomes a force of good in the world, although not in a way either Present or Clint had in mind.

Recommendation

Spirited isn’t the worst version of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol.  The grimdark Guy Pierce three-part television adaptation currently holds that title.  What is surprising is how much energy this movie expends for very modest results.  The significant expansion of the Scrooge mythology, the plentiful song-and-dance numbers, the stars (Will Ferrell, Ryan Reynolds, Octavia Spencer) and the CG effects don’t add up to much.  That being said, I was still moved by the eventual change of heart in the end by Scrooge’s stand-in.

Before Spirited delivers that emotional payoff, the movie struggles to make good use of what has been a reliably moving story for ages.  The songs by Pasek and Paul (The Greatest Showman, La La Land) are forgettable aside from the boisterous opening number “That Christmas Morning Feelin’” and the saucy “Good Afternoon”.  Scenes are sometimes lit with nausea-inducing color combinations (see below).  The idea must have been for the movie to look like it was filmed within a Christmas tree, but it fails miserably.  (Ron Howard’s The Grinch Who Stole Christmas is no longer the worst-looking Christmas movie.)

Ferrell and Reynolds give performances that mostly require them to act according to type.  Reynolds is flip and sarcastic, while Ferrell is naive and childlike.  (If you don’t like either actor, this movie won’t convince you otherwise.)  To the movie’s credit, both do exhibit some vulnerability very late in the game, and it moved me a tiny bit.  Octavia Spencer’s performance is easily the most relatable among the three leads.  Together, the trio sing often, not very well, but nothing that will break glass in your home.  Sunita Mani is funny as the horny ghost of Christmas Past.  Tracy Morgan’s schtick felt out-of-place.

I’m recommending this movie mainly because I watched it on Christmas Day and a feeling of Christmas Spirit put me in a charitable mood.  The movie isn’t terrible, and when I forced myself to look past its garishness and needless complexity I enjoyed it well enough.  The movie has an undeniable energy whenever the leads break into song and the extras in the background danced and sang.  (I think the production is a better fit for the stage, where it could be simplified and those musical numbers would stand out.)  Spirited is far from perfect, but it honors what has attracted people to the story of Marley, Scrooge and the ghosts.  It’s about finding the Christmas Spirit in each of us, with a little help from the supernatural.  Mildly recommended.

Analysis

Although I really like Scrooged, I never saw it as an influential movie.  Spirited proves me wrong because it wants to be Scrooged so badly that it even acknowledges it several times.  The problem with Spirited is that it expends too much energy to recreate what worked in another movie.

Spirited also doesn’t understand why Scrooged works.  Although Murray gives us the full Murray experience, the movie is much more than his attitude and behavior.  Spirited offers up Reynolds’ character as a modern-day equivalent to Murray’s Frank Cross but he doesn’t register at that level for several reasons.  First, the movie barely explores how detestable Clint truly is.  Turning Christmas trees into a culture war issue is small potatoes, and the fallout over Wren destroying her classmate is barely addressed in the movie.  Second, Clint has no romantic interest in the film.  Frank’s relationship with Claire (Karen Allen) grounded his character so that their interactions in the present and future reconciliation felt earned.  Clint’s girlfriend is an afterthought and his only close personal relationship was with his now-dead sister, meaning that there’s no relationship to be rekindled.  Finally, Reynolds isn’t Murray.  He can be funny (ex: Deadpool & Wolverine) and has some decent dramatic moments here, but he doesn’t bring the same level of energy to the proceedings that Murray did.

Making the seasonal operation high-tech was another misstep.  All it does is make things busier than they needed to be, with the lackluster payoff being sets whooshing and simulated characters going.  Anytime you have someone as funny as Will Ferrell spouting unfunny dialog like “Hold CPM104, please,” or “Can you cue-up DS261 from a couple days ago?”, you’ve made a mistake.  Keeping things simple would have worked better, just Marley and the ghosts in an office with file cabinets and a chalkboard.

Tinsel

Arthur Christmas, one of the few Christmas movies I don’t like, also depicted Santa as fronting the equivalent of a spy network.  The combination of Christmas and high-tech operations just doesn’t mix for me.

Why does Marley still speak like an Englishman but Scrooge no longer has a British accent and sounds American?

I like the idea of Rose Bryne in a modern retelling of A Christmas Carol.  Too bad she’s only on hand in a cameo.  The redeeming of a “Karen” definitely has possibilities.

As I mentioned above, the Christmas-themed production design of Spirited is frequently vomit inducing.

If ghosts can’t eat in the real world, why is Marley able to enjoy a cup of chili after Clint’s death?

Early on, in the Hall of the Redeemed, we get a brief glimpse of statues for Dolly Parton and Morgan Fairchild.  What crazy life was Parton leading before she was redeemed?

The Dame Judi Dench cameo made me chuckle.

The punchline to the joke about the leading cause of death for people in Scrooge’s time was the funniest one in the movie.

“He’s the perfect combination of Mussolini and Seacrest.”  Probably everyone on Film Twitter would agree with that assessment.

I’m convinced that those folks cheered when Reynold’s character gets hit in the head with a flying brick (see the trailer).

I couldn’t tell if the bit about Sephora was intended to be a joke, an honest admission or meta commentary on product placement.

The ugliest Christmas movie ever?

I don’t know if I should blame director Sean Anders, cinematographer Kramer Morgenthau or  production designer Clayton Hartley for the frequently vomit-inducing color schemes on display.  Following are just a small sample of ugly color combinations that only serve to make the actors look terrible.