books written by the late Theodor S. Geisel, known to millions as Dr. Seuss.
Fanciful text about magical places, all carrying valuable life lessons, are
the hallmarks of Geisel's books, which have been read by legions of parents
to countless numbers of wide-eyed toddlers. The 48-page "Grinch" was no
exception.
The tale is a disarming, sometimes alarming and other times charming, display
of Seuss' uses -- some say abuses -- of language conveyed in a charmingly,
rhymingly way. (OK, his word play is a whole lot better than that, but you
get the idea.)
Anyway after three decades the 22-minute holiday television staple has been
transformed into a 90-minute, live action motion picture. There are those
who undoubtedly will view this as sacrilege of the most heinous kind. To Ron
Howard's (yes Opie) credit, he worked hard to keep the animated Grinch
intact. The text of the book is in place, although it had to be padded out
considerably to fit the longer format. In addition, the songs from the TV
series have also been incorporated. The set design also conveys a
wonderfully animated/fantasy feel to the town of Whoville.
The movie opens with nearly an hour of background material about the Grinch
and Whoville that wasn't in the book (or TV show). We are supposed to learn
things about the Grinch to fill in the holes in Grinch lore. For example, we
learn that the Grinch hates Christmas due to bad childhood experiences
instead of "having a heart that's two sizes too small". Finally the narrative shifts
over to following the book almost letter-for-letter, and we get a strikingly
faithful re-creatation of the cartoon. There is a difference in tone between
the two portions of the film. The part that follows the book is smoother and
has a better narration and consistenly uses the rhymes, while the first
two-thirds has a "tacked-on", artifical feel.
However, this film is about Jim Carrey. Carrey is allowed to excel in his
role as the Grinch. The energy level bounces every time he is on-screen (and
unfortunately drops like a rock when he isn't). He brings animation to
live-action and enhances the fantasical sets and computer generated special
effects seamlessly. Buried beneath Rick Baker's (Monster Maker) excellent
make-up job Carrey is a dead ringer for the Grinch, but at the same time it
is always clear who is beneath the makeup. Carrey doesn't allow himself to get
upstaged by the special effects (like in the Mask). Carrey brings a special
personality to the Grinch that blends well with the Suess' creatation. He
also brings in a voice the sounds like a weird amalgamation of Sean Connery
and Jim Backus (Bond meets Magoo).
The role of Cindy Lou-Who (Taylor Momsen) is the character that benefits the
most from the script padding. Since she's needed to carry the plot a bit,
she's been transformed to about 7 years old, instead of Cindy Lou-Who who is
merely two. Taylor manages to be cute without being insufferable in this
role. A difficult task, for an actress chosen because she was more
"adorable" that others vying for the role. Apart from Momsen and Carrey the rest
of the cast was lacking in acting emotion. Jeffrey Tambor overplays the Mayor of
Whoville, Christine Baranski portrays the love interest of the Grinch. Molly
Shannon and Bill Irwin leadenly play little Cindy's parents.
How the Grinch Stole Christmas is a good solid hour and a half of genuine
family entertainment. Unlike most of the live-action remake movies making a
similar claim, there is almost no toilet humor (and the movie would have been
better without the one truly tasteless joke). The restrictions of Suess'
widow makes this a refreshingly clean comedy.
Rating: 3 stars (out of 4)