The Grinch – Review

Directed by: Yarrow Cheney and Scott Mosier

Runtime: 86 minutes

Christmas films have a great deal of nostalgia for me. I would always spend the month leading up to December watching Love Actually, The Holiday, A Nightmare Before Christmas and The Santa Claus (just to name a few). However, no film was as important as How the Grinch Stole Christmas. This film, starring Jim Carrey (2000) was always reserved the prime viewing slot on Christmas Eve. The humour of Jim Carrey, adorable characters and Christmas cheer has followed me long into my adulthood.

When I heard The Grinch was being made again now in 2018, I was excited to see the story re-told. Once I heard Benedict Cumberbatch was providing the voice for the infamous grumbling, green grouch, I was all for it. Could this be another Christmas film to add to my yearly list? How would it compare to the live action version I have fallen in love with?

Unfortunately, The Grinch did not live up to my extremely high expectations. While I do acknowledge that this film had a difficult road ahead to top Jim Carrey’s Grinch, I entered the film with an open mind, knowing that this would be a different and unique version of the character which was possibly targeted at a younger audience. However, as I sat in the packed cinema, surrounded by children, the first thing I noticed was the lack of laughter.

There were several issues with the ‘comedy’. It seemed the film wasn’t sure what angle to take. It couldn’t decide if it was aimed entirely for children or something for the whole family as many of the jokes fell flat and the physical comedy was something left to be desired. While the original version of The Grinch wasn’t known to be particularly funny, he was always a character that had a unique style to his vengeance. This version, while still somewhat jaded, was not a character the audience could laugh at, but a character you could completely sympathise with.

Cumberbatch’s Grinch had completely different motivations from the versions we were all familiar with. Left in an Orphanage from a young age, The Grinch had some of the worst Christmases as he was left alone with no gifts, no love and no company. After several Christmases of seclusion and disappointment, The Grinch grew cold and jaded and decided to move to Mount Crumpit to continue his life of solitude. Not only is this a completely understandable reason for hating Christmas, but his portrayal seemed to be one of social anxiety, rather than a man who is bitter and ill-tempered. While I would have loved this portrayal of a character struggling with social anxiety, they couldn’t seem to decide what lesson they wanted to delve into. He seemed to struggle fitting in, but this was portrayed as a fault, rather than something to support. This was the biggest disappointment of this film as they damaged this character’s persona, leaving the audience unsure of how to perceive him.

As the film progressed, the plot seemed to drag as the entire journey of the characters never became more complex or interesting and the ‘stealing of Christmas’ was rushed and underwhelming. As the film came to a close, the infamous moment where the Grinch hears all of Whoville singing in joy felt rushed and his transformation (as his heart grows) didn’t have the same gravitas as Carrey’s portrayal. The hip-hop music that played during the film seemed like a rather odd choice and “You’re a mean one, Mr. Grinch” took place far too early in the film to have any major impact.

The animation overall was clean; the hair and fur of the characters seemed soft and touchable and the intense colours would have entertained any child in the cinema who was a little bored by the plot. Pharrell Williams, who played the narrator, also did a surprisingly good job, despite the somewhat bizarre casting.

Unfortunately, this film had big shoes to fill and was always going to struggle to bring anything new to the table from Ron Howard’s version. While I appreciate the film for trying something else, it failed to stick to a solid message or emotion, and in a Christmas film this should be the easiest part of the job.