It's all in the writing of course. Stay true to Dickens' peerless source material, get the production values right and employ good actors and actresses and all should be well, as is here. Here, the excellent Patrick Stewart (executive producer too) convincingly portrays Ebenezer Scrooge and his journey from dark to light. Richard E Grant seems to me a little young and clean almost for the Bob Cratchit part, I saw Kevin Whately more in the part. The rest of the cast are fine in supplementary roles whilst I also enjoyed the special effects evocations of Jacob Marley's ghost and the three Christmas spirits who all initially scare and torment old Scrooge but ultimately lead him to righteousness. Best scenes are the first entry of Marley's ghost, the spurning of the young Scrooge by his young love and Stewart's difficulty in bringing out a laugh in his relief at his chance of redemption. The cinematography is generally good, with sprinklings of snow in most scenes to further accentuate the Christmas feel to the whole film. As stated earlier, it would be hard to go wrong here and with so many modern adaptations around, it was nice to see this wonderful Christmas story set so well in its own period.
Review of A Christmas Carol
