Ti West, he of the lurid, blood-soaked X, PEARL, and MAXXINE, has gifted us one of the best holiday presents that I can think of, and one I didn’t think was possible. With EBENEZER, he allows us to experience the well-known story of A Christmas Carol as if we are seeing it for the first time. Even if, like me, you can recite whole passages of it from memory. Still set in early 19th-century England, the story is reworked with sly variation. As a result, it comes to life with a new vitality, not to mention evoking the horror, supernatural and other, that was the intention of the immortal Dickens. For all the sentimentality attached to that author, he was, and is, still one of the best indicters of the inhumanities inherent in the class system, and this telling of the classic embraces it with arms of barbed wire.
The first variation begins the film. We witness the death of Jacob Marley (Ian McKellen) in the offices of Scrooge and Marley after a sneering discussion on the merits of kindness with his partner Ebenezer Scrooge (Johnny Depp). Kindness, needless to say but I will anyway, does not prevail. West here is setting the tone, all blacks and grays and wafting tendrils of fog punctuated with fire that glows with the menace of damnation. This is not the story you are expecting. This is a story that lets us peek around the corners that Dickens didn’t describe in depth, and occasionally riff with the material to energize us, and to catch us off guard. No spoilers, but suffice to say that the goose Scrooge buys on Christmas day as a multi-layered symbol of his transformation is not delivered to the Cratchits, but finds its final home in a place that allows for exposition that is fresh while also being completely in keeping with what Dickens meant. Even the quiet appearance of the noxious hallucination of a painting by Bosch lends itself perfectly to its moment without breaking faith with the story.
Fear not, Scrooge is as wicked as ever at the start, berating his long-suffering clerk, paragon of humanity Bob Cratchit (Rupert Grint), scoffing at the gentleman come for a donation to the poor, and delivering a resounding “bah, humbug” to his nephew, Fred (Sam Claflin) when the latter invites him to Christmas dinner. Depp has a festering sort of malevolence about him, forming each line of dialogue with a gleeful vitriol etched in acid. Wearing a nose chiseled to a fine point as well as other suitable appliances to transform him into the miser, there is nothing remotely sympathetic in form or attitude. It’s the eyes, though, that take such delight in wounding those around him, and the purr of his voice when suggesting to the gentlemen in search of a donation that their motives might be less than honorable, that seal him as a villain. This Scrooge is still a man hardened by suffering, but also one that has chosen to live in the shadow, as his one true love, the one he let get away, Belle (Ellie Bamber), so succinctly put it to him when they parted. Retreat is more like it as Depp gives us tells about that choice and clever of both Depp and West to offer tiny rays of light shining through the anger even before the three spirits make their epic visit and transform the miser into a philanthropist, and a human being.
The spirits in EBENEZER, in keeping with the tone, are all unsettling and sinister in differing degrees. Starting with Marley, who appears cadaverous and whose famous chains that he forged in life with his greed have real and painful heft, with McKellen wincingly embodying the weight as the merciless spiritual punishment he brought on himself. The Ghost of Christmas Past (Andrea Riseborough) is a sepulchral wraith decked out in a bridal gown and a veil that doubles as a shroud. Her voice echoes uncannily as though struggling to come through from the astral plane, while her wide and pupil-less eyes see nothing and everything. The Ghost of Christmas Present (Tramell Tillman) chafes at his task of saving Scrooge, spewing impatient contempt while taking Scrooge on his rounds. Tillman gives him an edge of unpredictability, while screenwriter Nathaniel Halpern adds an unexpected twist to the spirit that ties in perfectly with a new addition to Scrooge’s final revelation, as well as making the reveal of what he shelters beneath his cloak an image of perfect horror. As for the Ghost of Christmas Future (Robert Strange), the eeriness takes on psychological overtones that make him all the more intimidating in his swirls of black smoke and deadly silence. They may not be exactly what Dickens wrote, but they are most definitely what he meant.
The horror element dominates, and not just in the spirit realm. The life of desperation and dashed hopes led by the Cratchits is scrutinized with compassion that does nothing to mitigate their plight. The quiet conversation between Bob and his wife (Daisy Ridley) on Christmas Eve is played with expertly shifting layers of emotions that exemplify why the sentiment in this film is never cheap and is impossible to dismiss. You can only be swept up into the heartbreak of this moment, and of why Fred, when asked about it, keeps trying to win over his impossible uncle.
The redemption is also sweeping. Where Scrooge was the quintessence of misanthropy before, Depp channels that into pure joy that is just as all consuming. Maybe moreso. The pratfalls and bemusement are the tonic necessary to complete the pilgrim’s progress. This is one of Depp’s best performances, never pandering to the audience, but always maintaining a brittle anti-charisma as he revels in Scrooge’s cruelty, the reasons for which are depicted with such brutality that we understand how this grotesquerie was created.
EBENEZER may be too intense for kids. Those specters lurking outside of Scrooge’s house are strong stuff to see and hear, and the scenes of debtor’s prison are harrowing. The new interpretation, though, is a bracing one that should rightly take its place as a holiday tradition.
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