Starring Johnny Depp, Rupert Grint and Andrea Riseborough
Directed by Ti West
Written by Nathaniel Halpern
Paramount
Early in EBENEZER, a beggar in 1836 London responds to rejection by a passerby with “Take that as a no.” The quip inspires the expectation that this latest screen iteration of Charles Dickens’ classic A CHRISTMAS CAROL will be told with updated vernacular, a suspicion dispelled as the movie goes on. Nathaniel Halpern’s screenplay remains true to the original language, and largely to the original narrative, to the point that it seems quite unsporting to bury the acknowledgment of Dickens and his source novella at the very end of EBENEZER’s closing credits.
A CHRISTMAS CAROL has, to be sure, proven durable and malleable enough to be retold as everything from an anarchic Bill Murray comedy to a Muppets musical. The inspiration in EBENEZER is to lean into the spooky, supernatural side of the tale, with independent genre director Ti West working with by far his biggest budget and canvas yet. His approach, as signaled by the old-fashioned opening titles, quite appropriately harks back to Hammer horror, with its vision of 19th-century London as a gloomy, figuratively and literally haunted city. And there are no more bad feelings than those suffusing the Scrooge & Marley counting house, thanks to its misanthropic partners, Ebenezer (Johnny Depp) and Jacob (Ian McKellen).
Giving us an opening glimpse of Marley while he’s alive (though not for long) is one of EBENEZER’s deviations from/expansions on Dickens’ tale. He comes across as an even more crotchety old bugger than Scrooge, which has the odd effect of suggesting it’s his influence that has helped bend our title character toward “Humbug!” In any case, on Christmas Eve seven years after Marley passed on, Scrooge is still scowling and surly, mistreating his long-suffering clerk Bob Cratchit (Rupert Grint), turning away charities and his nephew Fred (Sam Claflin) and rejecting the holiday spirit (“Good cheer never balanced a ledger”).
Of course, this miser is fated to visits by a series of literal holiday spirits, beginning with the chain-laden spectre of Marley, who announces the impending appearances of the Ghosts of Christmas Past (Andrea Riseborough), Present (Tramell Tillman) and Yet to Be (Robert Strange). Even for those who might be unfamiliar with this material, it’s established early on that the purpose of Scrooge’s paranormal experience is to guide him in seeing the error of his ways, and turning over a new leaf. The durable tale retains some of its primal power, but EBENEZER is more a movie of moments than overall emotional impact. While the marketing has suggested this will be a revelatory new take on Dickens’ fable, the result is a well-crafted film that feels more dutiful than inspired.
Those drawn to EBENEZER by West’s presence at the helm won’t be disappointed by the Ghosts, at least. Although digital effects have been employed to give them that ethereal quality, their visages were created via superb special-makeup work by Barrie Gower, a multiple Emmy winner for GAME OF THRONES, STRANGER THINGS and THE LAST OF US. The standout is the Ghost of Christmas Past, performed with a true sense of spooky, forlorn otherworldliness by Riseborough, sporting whited-out eyes that suggest the end of Lucio Fulci’s THE BEYOND. (The similarity may be intentional, as West visually references THE EVIL DEAD and A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET to herald her arrival.)
Gower’s exacting work also includes the Scrooge prosthetics that hold up in close-ups and all kinds of light, and Depp returns that favor by disappearing into the role. Some have accused him of overdoing the part, but Scrooge was never the subtlest of characters, and while Depp plays him with rotten-hearted vigor, he keeps Scrooge human instead of a scenery-chewing caricature. What’s missing from EBENEZER, though, is a sense of truly looking into Scrooge’s soul, and sharing his terror at confronting both these occult revenants and the blackest depths of his own heart, as well as his redemption in the final act.
A few of the expansions from the original text seem ill-judged as well, like the larger role given to Belle (Ellie Bamber), whose later appearances blunt the impact of her lost love on Scrooge. And considering that the whole point of the story is to steer Scrooge toward generosity and altruism, it was a very strange decision to depict a charity as corrupt and street paupers as both duplicitous and downright murderous.
There are passages in EBENEZER that capture the proper chilly atmosphere, and others evoking the warmth of the holiday (particularly a montage of different people and groups singing “Silent Night”). The craft behind the film, particularly Checco Varese’s cinematography and Eve Stewart’s production design, is first-rate. Yet one comes away from EBENEZER with the feeling of admiring it from a bit of a distance, rather than being truly captivated by it.
