A Christmas Carol (1999)

December 13, 2018 8:08 PM

An old bitter miser (Patrick Stewart) who makes excuses for his uncaring nature learns real compassion when three ghosts visit him on Christmas Eve.
posted by the man of twists and turns (4 comments total)

I was lucky enough to get to see Patrick Stewart do his solo Christmas Carol on Broadway - he was so good at doing all the voices and Dickens' text, that when I tried to watch this production of him doing Scrooge only it just felt...off somehow. I don't think I made it all the way through. TNT will be replaying it next week, guess I should give it another go.
posted by oh yeah! at 4:53 AM on December 14, 2018 [2 favorites]

I was basically coming in to say exactly what oh yeah! just said.

i think that Stewart is just so good at bringing the script alone to life that you don't really need to see anything else. It's the audio/storyteller version of when you read a book that you love and it's so vivid you can see everything from the book in your head - and then you go to see the movie and none of it matches the pictures that are in your head already so it feels off.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 6:23 AM on December 15, 2018 [1 favorite]

Definitely my favourite film version. I especially enjoy the bit in the Christmas Present section where we see lots of different people celebrating Christmas - the miners, sailors at sea and prisoners. Also, I love the bit where Scrooge tries to laugh and can't quite remember how to do it at first.
posted by Fuchsoid at 7:07 AM on December 16, 2018 [2 favorites]

One thing I like a lot is that Patrick Stewart’s Scrooge is genuinely a tough, sharp bastard; someone you can really believe cut his way through the City. No Mr Magoo or quavering old fool. That makes him more believable and heightens your sense of his pain at certain moments. Stewart makes it clear, for example, how hard it is for Scrooge to make himself vulnerable by asking his nephew whether he will have him to dinner.
posted by Segundus at 7:36 AM on December 17, 2018 [5 favorites]