A Christmas Carol (Ross Kemp) (2000) -
While Ross Kemp, would never have been my first choice to play any variation of Ebenezer (Eddie) Scrooge and he wasn't brilliant in this role, basically playing Grant Mitchell (Eastenders), I did believe that his character had truly gone through a change as a result of his visitations, because at the very beginning I felt that he was way passed a redemption of any sort.
This version of the classic Dickens novel was a hugely bastardised script that was actually as much 'Groundhog Day' (1993) as 'A Christmas Carol', but it somehow worked. Yes, I was surprised too!
I actually did enjoy it, despite a few hammy and overacted performances.
Will I be adding it to my list of films to watch every Christmas? Probably not, but I'm glad that I've seen it and I would watch it again in the future, although The Muppets, George C. Scott and Alistair Sim alternatives will always be lined up before it.
In fairness, the bastardisation was only really done to bring it up to date for the time that it was filmed and set and I thought that it was done quite cleverly to show that the same issues still existed over 150 years after Charles Dickens wrote the source material. Sadly the world does not seem to have improved since the mid 1800's or even the Millennium and we still have that balance of rich and poor, instead of a world where everyone lives comfortably.
Other than the fact that Liz Smith (Joyce) must have known the script to this story off by heart, this being at least the third one I've seen her in and the dodgy bit where Eddie was arguing with the ghost of Christmas future that was really quite weird, there's nothing more to say about this one, except perhaps to not judge it based on its premise and cast as I initially did 22 years ago.
7/10.
