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Elaine Liner is Caller-Times' media critic. Her columns are published Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Sundays. She has been known to occasionally gossip with her readers in the Elaine Liner Forum. Elaine can be reached at linere@caller.com Sunday, December 5, 1999 Wild special effects for TNT's 'Christmas Carol'New version of the Dicken's classic stars Patrick Stewart
TNT's highly entertaining new version of "A Christmas Carol" (7, 9 and 11 p.m. today) gives a decidedly visceral edge to the classic Charles Dickens story about a bitter man's 11th-hour redemption. The ghost of Jacob Marley (Scrooge's dead business partner) stretches his face like Beetlejuice. Ghost of Christmas Past (played by Joel Grey) is a chalk-faced apparition, like a tiny, glowing Baby Jane. This "Christmas Carol" seems to be trying to get old Scrooge to open his hardened heart by scaring him out of his wits. Produced by Robert Halmi Sr. ("Animal Farm," "Gulliver's Travels"), who goes a bit wild with the special effects at times, TNT's "A Christmas Carol" rises above the gimmicky visuals to hit all the right notes of sadness, sentiment and hope. That's achieved by the acting. The cast is first-rate, filled with seasoned actors from the Royal Shakespeare Company (of which Stewart is an alumnus), including Ian McNeice, Saskia Reeves, Desmond Barrit and Dominic West. Richard E. Grant ("L.A. Story") is a consumptive-looking Bob Cratchit. Bald pate glowing in the candlelight, Stewart plays Scrooge with infectious fervor. Best known as Captain Jean-Luc Picard on "Star Trek: The Next Generation," Stewart warmed up for this TV movie by acting out the entire Dickens story in a critically acclaimed one-man stage performance. When it came time to do the TV production, Stewart found he was daunted by one important line: "Bah, humbug." "It's tricky. It's like some of those lines in Shakespeare that everyone knows so well," said Stewart. "As an actor, you learn to fear them a bit. You feel you need to do something different with them. The challenge with 'bah, humbug' is to let the audience know what lies behind it. Scrooge completely rejects what Christmas is and what Christmas represents. He refuses to allow the warmth and love and humanity of Christmas into his heart. You've got to communicate all that with 'bah, humbug.' " And he does communicate it, by half-growling the phrase, placing special guttural emphasis on "h-h-h-h-humbug." Dozens of versions of "A Christmas Carol" have come and gone over the decades. The 1843 novel has spawned plays, movie dramas and comedies, musicals, TV adaptations and endless sitcom spoofs. Each has its merits. The 1950s movie version starring the highly mannered British thesp Alastair Sim is a perennial fave. The TV movie from 1984, starring the late George C. Scott, is also a goody (it airs at 7 p.m., Dec. 15 on WGN, and again at 2 p.m., Dec. 19). TNT's takes its place among the best and there's no reason it shouldn't be back year after year. Told simply and dramatically, the story of a miserable man given a second chance at life is a surefire tearjerker and heartwarmer. With the talented Stewart at the helm, this "Christmas Carol" makes it so. Also this week
© 1999 Corpus Christi Caller Times, a Scripps Howard newspaper. All rights reserved. |
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