Scrooged Over

I've mentioned more than once over the past few years that watching the movie Scrooged is a holiday tradition with me. But I've never really written up an actual review of it, as I do for other movies. I just upheld the tradition here in this week running up to Christmas, so with the movie fresh in my mind, here are a few thoughts about why I like it so well.

Everybody knows the story of A Christmas Carol. And I think I might really mean everybody. I wouldn't be at all surprised if my three-year-old niece could give you a rough account of the story. So, for my money, the most important thing about Scrooged is the way it embraces this familiarity. Everyone from George C. Scott to Patrick Stewart has starred in some version of the "original." Adaptations have been made that turn it into a musical, feature The Muppets, and animate it with Disney characters. But all of those incarnations play it straight.

Scrooged says, "yes, we know you've seen some version of A Christmas Carol, and we're not going to pretend otherwise." The main character is a television executive staging a live production of the story. He immediately reacts to his own haunting with a sarcastic knowledge of Dickens' tale. The movie is littered with self-aware jokes. (Mary Lou Retton as Tiny Tim!)

Beginning from this solid ground, the movie then actually improves on the original story, in my view. Ebenezer Scrooge is redeemed at the end of the Dickens story, but you have to wonder how much it really means when you think about it. He's an old man at that point, probably no more than a few years from death. He has little time to make many changes in the world, nor to enjoy his own reformed character and spirit.

Scrooged's Frank Cross, by contrast, still has a whole life ahead of him. And it's not too late for him to fix his mistakes. Where Ebenezer's beloved left him many decades ago and is lost forever, Frank Cross' love is a major character in the film that he reconnects with in the present, and the two end up together by the end of the film.

Scrooge's hauntings happen all in one uninterrupted night; he has no contact with any real person before the entire process of his reformation is complete. But in Scrooged, time continues to pass for the main character between the arrival of the ghosts. As a result, the movie is better able to portray the incremental steps in which the main character slowly "gets it." After his visit to the past, he tries to do the right thing and reconnect with his girlfriend, but that backfires. He then passes up the chance to save a person's life, and the Ghost of Christmas Present shows him the consequences of that decision. Then the Ghost of Christmas Future is able to show him a future that comes as a direct consequence of things he said and did even after his visitations from the Ghost of Christmas Past. In short, it's a stronger narrative line that builds upon itself more methodically than the original Dickens tale.

Now add brilliant casting. Bill Murray's defining roles in things like Stripes or Ghostbusters was as a "wise cracker," but I think he really excels in movies like this and Groundhog Day, as a flawed man in need of a personality makeover. Karen Allen is his likable love interest. The ghosts are fantastic, from John Forsythe's "Marley" character, to David Johansen's gruff cabbie Ghost of Christmas Past, to the (of course) brilliant Carol Kane's sadistic Ghost of Christmas Present. Alfre Woodard brings heart to film in her "Bob Cratchit" role.

And then there are the cameos. It starts with the insane and hilarious appearance of Lee Majors in the opening sequence, and before we're through, Robert Goulet, Mary Lou Retton, Jamie Farr, Buddy Hackett, and more have all gotten a laugh.

The movie is funny throughout. That's perhaps less easy to appreciate when you watch it every year, but I find myself and my friends quoting from Scrooged all year round -- a great sign that it was something memorable to all of us. But it also has a few genuine moments of sentiment too, like the past breakup of Frank and Claire, or the "God bless us, every one" climax involving Grace's mute child.

Workhorse director Richard Donner keeps everything moving at a quick pace, and Danny Elfman contributes a perfect "bright but also creepy" score.

I'd say that really the only down side of the movie is that it feels at times like it was really made on the cheap, or rushed through production, or both. I'm not usually the person spotting "continuity errors" or other mistakes of that nature in movies, but they're rather plentiful in this film. Visible wires, the changing name of Claire's homeless shelter, three shots firing from a double-barrel shotgun, and more. The film may come together well, but it doesn't seem like anybody was sweating the details.

Still, Scrooged is a holiday tradition I haven't tired of, and don't foresee tiring of any time soon. I rate the movie an A-, and would certainly place it on my Top 100 list. (Which really, no seriously, I will finish revising some day.)