By Nick Nitkowski Jr.

You all know the story of “A Christmas Carol”. It’s one of the most famous literary works by Charles Dickens. It has been adapted so many times in so many ways in both film and stage plays. It is without a doubt by every ounce of the word a classic. Now we have another adaptation. One that is directed by Ti West, best known for his “X” trilogy consisting of “X”, “Pearl”, and “MaXXXine”, and brings the legendary Johnny Depp back to the big screen as the title character of the film “Ebenezer”. The question is, will this new adaptation be good enough to lift the spirits, or will it just be a humbug?

For those of you who somehow don’t know the story of “A Christmas Carol”, it is about a surly old man named Ebenezer Scrooge who hates Christmas and everything it entails. His only interests lie within his money. But during the holiday season, he is haunted by three spirits who show him his past, present, and future in the hopes that he can change his surly ways before it is too late.

I have seen so many different iterations of this particular story. Some have certainly been done better than others. It’s difficult to mess up this classic story as it’s one that I always like to revisit during the holiday season. After seeing the trailer, I was worried that they were going to make it a little too joke-y this time around. Fortunately, that was more of a selling point to get butts in seats, because while this movie doesn’t exactly break the mold when it comes to adaptations, it does enough new things to keep one interested.

The movie adds a few new elements to the story. Not a whole lot, but just enough sprinkled around the film’s runtime. I found these new elements very interesting and to me it added just enough to keep it new and fresh for the audiences that know the story instead of just redoing the same story beat for beat with new actors. They even switched up the dialogue a little. Again, not a lot, but just enough.

Johnny Depp is back on the big screen where he belongs because he once again disappears into his role. I thought he did a really good job as Ebenezer Scrooge in this film. All the other actors like Rupert Grint, Daisy Ridley, and Ian McKellen did a good job as well, however, they all felt like glorified background actors in the film, because this is without a doubt Johnny Depp’s film. 

I liked Ti West’s direction on this adaptation. I liked the use of darkness and shadows throughout the film. It gave the film a dark tone. Speaking of which, this is definitely one of the darker iterations of the story. Not just in terms of shadows or tone, but there were also some dark story elements, not to mention the eerie, creepy look of the Ghost of Christmas Past. These are things that I enjoyed, but I could scare small children. It’s rated PG-13 for a reason.

Overall, I had a good time watching “Ebenezer”. I liked most of the changes and new additions to the film’s story. There were a couple of things that I personally felt could have been improved on, but it certainly was not a bad film. While there were some comedic moments in the film, it wasn’t an overbearing amount that I was originally worried about. In my opinion, it’s hard to mess up a classic story like “A Christmas Carol”. Even some of the less than stellar adaptations I found enjoyable merely because they followed most of the original story. This may not be considered the best adaptation of them all, but it was still one of the good ones in my personal opinion. It’s definitely not a humbug. 

🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟 stars