We didn't hate this lushly produced story of Charles Dickens' struggle with writers' block and fear of debt in order to come up with A Christmas Carol in six weeks in 1843. Dan Stevens (last blogged for Norman: The Moderate Rise and Tragic Fall of a New York Fixer), as Dickens, plays many scenes for laughs, though his awareness of the less fortunate and his own past are quite serious. Christopher Plummer (most recently in these pages for Danny Collins) is implacable as Dickens' imaginary Scrooge. Pivotal to the plot is Dickens' father John, played with abandon by the reliable Jonathan Pryce (profiled in Dough), and a few choice scenes feature Simon Callow (last in Victoria & Abdul) as illustrator Mr. Leech and the venerable, petite Miriam Margolyes (over 150 credits, including The Age of Innocence (1993), Sunshine (1999), Being Julia (2004), The Life and Death of Peter Sellers (2004), three Harry Potters as Professor Sprout, and The Guilt Trip) as Mrs. Fisk.
Director Bharat Nalluri (helmed the excellent HBO mini-series Tsunami: The Aftermath (2006) and Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day, among others) works from a script by Susan Coyne (some TV including two episodes of Mozart in the Jungle) who adapted Les Standiford's 2011 novel.
The cinematography is quite pretty, shot in Ireland by Ben Smithard, just blogged for Goodbye Christopher Robin.
The music is good, too, by Mychael Danna (most recently in these pages for scoring Life of Pi, but it's been a challenge to stream it from youtube while writing this because there are ads every few tracks. Here's one playlist (I keep the youtube stream open in its own window so I can click "skip ad" each time).
Unusually so, Rotten Tomatoes' critics and audiences are more enthusiastic than Jack and I are, averaging 80 and 82%, respectively. Its last screening in this area was today. and it's expected to be available for streaming and buying in February. Maybe next holiday season you can watch it for free somewhere.
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