Johnny Depp Leads New 'A Christmas Carol' Film With 3 Ghosts and a New Marley Prologue
Updated
Updated · The Guardian · Nov 12
Johnny Depp Leads New 'A Christmas Carol' Film With 3 Ghosts and a New Marley Prologue
3 articles · Updated · The Guardian · Nov 12
Summary
Johnny Depp’s new turn as Ebenezer Scrooge anchors a largely faithful film adaptation that the review calls unexpectedly watchable, with Depp strongest in Scrooge’s bitter, unreformed phase.
Ti West and screenwriter Nathaniel Halpern keep Dickens’s core story intact but add fresh touches, including a prologue with Jacob Marley still alive and trading barbs with Scrooge before a horror-tinged exit.
The film also tweaks familiar characters and motives: Scrooge accuses charity collectors of theft, Belle becomes a novelist, and Mr Fezziwig gets a darker fate that helps explain Scrooge’s hardening.
Ian McKellen plays Marley, while Andrea Riseborough, Tramell Tillman and Robert Strange appear as the 3 ghosts; Rupert Grint plays Bob Cratchit and Sam Claflin plays Fred.
The review judges the film a decent new version that avoids heavy revisionism, though Depp’s redeemed Scrooge lands less forcefully and some church-and-carol choices may jar with Dickens purists.