Not quite my first watch of A Christmas Carol this year, but it is close enough. Spirted (2022) starring Will Ferrell and Ryan Reynolds really passed me by upon its initial release. It is a different take on the Scrooge story, and having seen that story told so many times that I often forgot every version I’ve seen I very much appreciated it.
Now, that is not to say I loved the film and I don’t envision myself watching it again anytime soon, but it was enjoyable and put enough of a twist on the tale to keep me interested. It has the Will Ferrell issue to some extent where he becomes somewhat man childish, which quite often leaves me cold. But it is fairly subdued, and even when it is turned up a bit it fits within the context of the film so I can forgive it. Also, with the film being a musical (did I mention that already?) you can get away with it a lot more. I cannot argue he is charismatic and putting him alongside Ryan Reynolds mean that there is enough screen presence to keep you hooked throughout the whole film. Where the film really succeeds is in its musical numbers. It gives each of them its all, being bombastic, well-choregraphed and well shot. Not a lot of the song are earworms and thinking about it now I can only really remember the one, but while watching the film I was not put off by any of them and they helped move the story along as all songs in musicals should. One issue with the film is that it makes a lot of jokes about it being am musical and resenting that fact which can be funny but are also used to interrupt the musical numbers more than I’d like. There is also one narrative thread, which I won’t spoil here, but oh boy does it go to a place that was probably unneeded and felt way off from the tone of the rest of the film. But overall, I enjoyed this. If you’re looking for that Christmas Carol hit but are bored of the same story over and over, this might just do the job for you.
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