Hey folks, Harry here... I haven't yet seen the final print of HOW THE GRINCH STOLE CHRISTMAS.... all I've seen was that print from several months ago which was missing about 70% of the effects. In Junior's rather impassioned review of the film... She is interpretating the orighinal HOW THE GRINCH STOLE CHRISTMAS special we all know and love and using its vintage values to judge the modern film.... Now, in the print I saw there were a few many ill-advised modern day jokes which I wished were removed... but.... I agreed with the fascist commercialistic portrayal of the Whos. Because, when Dr Seuss wrote the original Grinch story... I believe the world was not the market Me Me Me world that we have today. Birthdays and Christmas are about the toys and gifts, and less about those that gave them... And we're all a bit guilty about that. And in today's world, if all our Christmas presents were stolen.... we'd phone the police.... gripe about crime in the city today.... talk about what a waste Christmas is anyways... and that would be that. The updating of the WHO's misattribution of Christmas to be all about presents and competitions and personal social stature.... Well, as a satirist and children's storyteller, I feel this is a much more accurate portrait of the modern state of WHOs... Us.... At least as the early version I saw... We might not like the picture it paints of what Christmas has become... but let's face it... Christmas is the time of year now where some feel it so necessary to afford things they can't... that they mortgage their houses, sell prized possessions to just present a 'closet trinket' for those they know. I love the holiday, the symbols, the traditional entertainment of the season... But when Christmas becomes about Cabbage Patch and Tickle Me Elmos and Pokemons and Star Wars.... then the Grinch is right and the Whos are wrong... Tis my feelings.... Talk back amongst yourselves.... here's Junior...
Hey Harry Who-Geek,
For months I have been anxiously awaiting the arrival of the Grinch. I loved the book, adored the animated special (Chuck Jones rules the earth!) and had high hopes for the new live-action epic. I saw a very rough cut of the film over the summer, but held off on voicing an opinion as I wasn't sure what was going to make it into the final version. Also in the cut I saw there was only a very temporary music track to underscore the action and no special effects. Today I finally saw it all together and on the whole I liked it...sorta.
Let me say that the best part of the movie, green furry hands down, is the Grinch himself. Jim Carrey is absolutely wonderful as the bitter, self-mocking, but very funny outcast creature who hates the cheerful residents of Whoville and the holiday they hold dear. Every second spent with Carrey/Grinch in his dismal mountain home is a joy. Funniest scene in the picture involves the Grinch's indecision about whether or not to accept an invitation to a holiday party and then stewing about what to wear. Even though the comic is covered from head to toe in Rick Baker's awesome make-up, he's still Jim Carrey and he has never been funnier.
That said, this is unfortunately not a great picture overall. The big problem is, that in order to expand Dr. Seuss' simple fable to feature film length, a lot of new story had to be concocted and most of it falls dismally flat. Director Ron Howard's take on the story is the Whos of Whoville are so obsessed with Christmas that they lose sight of what the holiday is all about. Yet, thanks to the interaction of the mean ol' Grinch with a sweet little Who-girl, the true meaning of the day is rekindled for all involved. Well, the TRUE true meaning of the holiday is never alluded to in this film and neither is it dealt with in the original book or animated special. Still, the book and the cartoon carry definite messages about the transforming power of human generosity, a point which the movie misses entirely.
In the book and cartoon, the Grinch views Christmas as a big, noisy waste of time. A gluttonous greedfest into which he'd rather not join. It's an annoyance and a headache, nothing more. By stealing the Whos' gifts, he figures he's putting an end to the stupid tradition, and getting a few perverse chuckles at his enemies' expense, as well. It's only when he's ripped them off blind does the Grinch realize he's been wrong -- the Whos never seem to notice they've been robbed, the first thing they do on Xmas morning is go to the town square, join hands and sing, exactly what they do on every other Xmas morning. It's only then the Grinch realizes all his purloined trimmings and trappings are simply symbols of a deeper spiritual generosity, and he furthermore comes to realize that's not such a bad thing. The Whos don't need the gifts, they don't even miss them.
That's where the film commits its biggest error. In trying to pad out the story, the Whos are made completely materialistic, fretting over every last, meaningless detail of their shallow Xmas celebration. To make things even more confusing, another holiday, the Whoville Whobilation, has been tacked onto the plot, allowing for more screen time to be wasted, and more opportunities to get the Whos into funny outfits. So much time is spent on the various Who celebrations I found myself getting numb and bored with the proceedings and wished the picture would either cut back to the Grinch or just end already. The big emotional tone that echoed through these scenes was that the Grinch was right -- in this film the Whos' Xmas is nothing but a big, noisy waste of time. Dump it off a cliff and have done with it. We see very little of the Whos in the original book and cartoon, and so their true unmaterialistic attitude at the end of both versions of the story comes as a surprise to both the readers/viewers and the Grinch. In the film they are a mindlessly cheerly lot of candy-colored idiots, the most hateable band of screen varmints this side of the Gungans. At the end, the very first thing they notice is the Grinch ripped them off, and they gather in the town square to do exactly what the Grinch wants, which is wail their heads off about it. Unh-uh. That's dead-wrong. Even though they eventually start signing the "Welcome Christmas" song, and lip-service is paid to the true value of family over material objects, it all comes off as 100% phoney. Giving the Whos this shallow emotional beat defeats them as characters right off the bat. It's a false note that starts ringing early in the first act and ultimately sours the entire movie.
Still, it's hard for me to give this movie a complete slam. As I said, Carrey is brilliant, and on the whole the look of the film is stunning. True, there are town scenes which come awful close to the color overkill of a Schumacher Batman film, but by and large it's a pretty movie to look at. The Christmas morning scene on Mt. Crumpet is a particular stand-out. The bottom line - will audiences like it? Probably. Will it make money? Definitely. But when it comes to sheer emotional impact, it will always run a poor third to Seuss' original and Jones' magnificent cartoon.
Sometimes less is more, especially in Whoville.
Junior Mintz
