Peter McGinn

I am pretty sure I watched this version of A Christmas Carol many years ago, but decided to watch it again in my quest to find some gems hidden in the blizzard of tv style new Christmas films. This is a modern update to the story, and I think it does a great job with it. It doesn’t just “plug in” the plot to a modern setting. Rather it makes a few imaginative plot changes as well. Instead of the three ghost visits taking place in one night, they occur over three days in a riff on Groundhog Day. And in this version, Bob Cratchit actually has marital problems with his wife over working for Scrooge, and instead of taking the passive path to reconciling them — having her get convinced that Scrooge has changed his ways, Scrooge has an ingenious way of bringing the couple back together. I won’t spoil it more than that! So this version ticks off the critical boxes of the original story, but injects life into it as well, making it a fine addition to this sub genre of Christmas films.