Johnny Depp’s Hollywood comeback after 8 years is…
film review
EBENEZER: A CHRISTMAS CAROL
Running time: 116 minutes. Rated PG-13 (for scary materials). In theaters.
Let’s call “Ebenezer: A Christmas Carol” what it actually is: “Johnny Depp: A Comeback.”
That’s the only cause to go see it.
It’s been eight years since the “Pirates of the Caribbean” star has been in a major Hollywood movie. After ex Amber Heard’s abuse allegations and the following Cirque du So Embarrassing that was their defamation trial, he made just two small motion pictures (one was in French).
And so, given the circumstances, it’s fairly becoming that the first image of Depp that most followers could have seen on a cinema screen since 2018 is him grizzled, outdated, kooky and embittered. It’s virtually realism.
There actually was no doubt in my thoughts that the actor can be strong as Ebenezer Scrooge, Charles Dickens’ redeemed crank who’s been a staple of Christmases for more than a century. The character is comfortably in line with the darkish, pale and pinstriped Tim Burton aspect of his profession — “Edward Scissorhands,” “Sweeney Todd,” “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,” and many others. And he’s never shied away from outsized and eccentric roles.
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Or Victorian England, for that matter.
Johnny Depp performs Ebenezer Scrooge. Paramount Pictures via AP
At the start, Depp is truly a bit too excessive. Muppetesque. His initial efficiency solutions the age-old query: What if Capt. Jack Sparrow misplaced all his intercourse appeal and grew to become a imply, grasping shut-in?
But as Scrooge encounters the ghosts of Christmas past, current and future, Depp and Ebenezer both calm down, and the basic story hits its requisite emotional beats.
What’s quite less profitable is the mediocre film wheezing and fumbling around him. “Ebenezer” is undoubtedly not getting into any household’s vacation traditions. It’s no Mr. Magoo.
The actor stars in his first major Hollywood position in eight years. Paramount Pictures via AP
That up to date title suggests that the story has been one way or the other refashioned to be more about Scrooge, like “Cruella” or “Maleficent.” But isn’t “A Christmas Carol” always solely about Ebenezer? He’s in every scene, he’s taught a lesson, he even will get a catchphrase. Lest we neglect that “Scrooged,” starring Bill Murray, was a pun and the flick was set in trendy occasions.
Naming this routine Victorian-Era adaptation “Ebenezer” is little more than a significantly lazy attempt to differentiate the Depp film from the myriad other variations, like when a good friend bleaches their hair on trip.
But that meaningless moniker plus the involvement of director Ti West of the “X” horror trilogy suggest that we’re getting one thing contemporary, thrilling and edgy. We will not be. There are a couple of half-hearted jump-scares and an unexplained pack of zombie-like ghouls that chase after Scrooge — kissing cousins to those holograms of Disney’s “Haunted Mansion.” Andrea Riseborough’s white-eyed Ghost of Christmas Past is the creepiest half, as that spirit often is.
Andrea Riseborough’s Ghost of Christmas Past is appropriately creepy. Paramount Pictures via AP
One wrongheaded approach of sustaining the dreary temper is that West makes “Severance” actor Tramell Tillman’s Ghost of Christmas Present less jolly and enjoyable. Instead he’s a impolite, unsmiling bar fly. Doesn’t that go against the entire level of the (*8*) message he’s supposed to convey?
The non-paranormal folks that Scrooge meets are fab to effective. One addition to the plot is getting to see Ian McKellen’s Jacob Marley in human type for a minute on the day he dies. McKellen’s predictably great and full of panache. I want his scenes have been longer. Heck, I want this was “Marley”!
And Rupert Grint makes for a candy and demure Bob Cratchit, bleary eyed from staying up late fixing Tiny Tim’s crutch.
Again, how precisely did the director of “Pearl” land this job?
Ian McKellen will get some added screen time as Jacob Marley. Paramount Pictures via AP
As early as the first visitation, there is a feeling of defeat when we understand we’ve been hoodwinked into sitting through another basic “Christmas Carol” — and an particularly indecisive one. It’s not horror, it’s not festive, it’s not a lushly designed London winter.
All this film is is an alternative to hear Depp yell, “Bah humbug!” — a phrase that, unsurprisingly, comes fairly naturally to him.
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