But West had no intentions of giving us a cuddly version of this classic. Instead, he leaned into the concept of a person being scared straight. Rather than silly ghosts, like those found in the Disney version or Scrooged, West delivers ghosts that would genuinely scare the piss out of anyone being confronted by them. In fact, this literally happens to Ebenezer in the film. Then, West plunks them down in a nineteenth century Victorian London that fully exemplifies a Dickensian setting. The place is dirty, dark, wet, and filled with people scraping out a living. Creepy ghosts fit right in.
I’ve never read the original story, so I can’t say how true to the source material is Ebenezer. So, someone who has read it will have to tell me if Ebenezer Scrooge’s partner, Jacob Marley, makes an appearance in the book as a living human rather than just a ghost. Because that’s how Ebenezer starts off. Jacob (Ian McKellan) and Ebenezer (Johnny Depp) are counting their money, ridiculing poor people, and giving Bob Cratchit (Rupert Grint) a hard time for wanting to leave work two minutes early to go home to his family. Jacob dies shortly after Bob leaves, then the movie jumps forward seven years to where every other adaptation begins.
Other than that potential change, the rest of the movie unfolds like we all remember. First ghost up is Jacob, now dragging along the chains representing all of the cruelty he espoused while alive. McKellan is a great casting choice here because his scowl has grown fiercer with his age and his voice can still boom with the best of them. The etherealness of Jacob’s appearances only makes him that much creepier.
Next is the Ghost of Christmas Past (Andrea Riseborough). Like Jacob, her appearance is that of a pale skinned, white eyed, ethereal ghoul. She initially appears wearing what looks like a wedding gown and veil, making us wonder what befell her in life. I know this story is about Ebenezer’s redemption, but I really want to know more about this lady.
Then, we have the Ghost of Christmas Present (Tramell Tillman). For the entire second act, I tried to figure out where I’d seen Tillman before. This only got harder as his skin cracked and flaked like a burning log while showing Ebenezer how his acquaintances lived and spoke of him. And every time he exploded in rage at Ebenezer’s ignorance and denial, I couldn’t help but flinch with Ebenezer. Got it - Tillman is the manager guy in Severance. Wow is he good at this.
Last is the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come (Robert Strange). Are all of those capital letters in the right place? I get it - Ghost of Christmas Future doesn’t sound nearly as ominous as Yet to Come. And there are no surprises - the ghost is Death. The Grim Reaper. Ol’ boney hands. Kind of makes you wonder if the other ghosts are even needed when Death is one of them. Of course, then the movie would be really short and we’d wonder if Ebenezer was changing for the right reasons and not just because he ended up in his own future grave. I mean, Grave Yet to Come.
The story was good, the ghosts were excellent, the aesthetics were on point, and all of the actors not in the title role were really good (shout outs to Grint, Sam Claiflin, and Ellie Bamber, in particular). That leaves Depp who, mercifully, didn’t deliver an annoying, weirdo version of Ebenezer. That was my biggest fear going in to the film - that Depp would try way too hard in his first main-stream film in eight years. Thankfully, West had a vision for this film and stuck to it. Piss and all.
Rating: Don’t ask for any money back unless you wanted a batshit, Tim Burton version of Scrooge.
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