Review of How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000) by Gerardistheway — 12 Dec 2016

It would be incredibly easy to dismiss this movie outright as inferior to the 1966 animated short, and you would get no arguments from me—it really, truly is, but is still worth at least one viewing due to the supreme effort put by Jim Carrey into the role he was born to play.

The story can be summed up in one line from the book: “Every Who down in Whoville liked Christmas a lot, but the Grinch, who lived just north of Whoville, did not.” Why does he hate Christmas so much? No explanation is given in the original, but here the blame falls upon a childhood incident from which a humiliation was suffered while trying to impress his crush (ah, the power of hormones). In the present, the big green curmudgeon (Carrey) lives atop Mount Crumpit while the Whos celebrate Christmas in increasing extravagance every year, much to his annoyance. Yet one Who, Cindy Lou (Taylor Momsen, who, believe it or not, later went on to form the rock band Pretty Reckless), no longer no more than two but rather about six or seven, recognizes that with the increased focus on the gifts and festivities that people have lost sight of the real point of the holiday, and after learning of the tragic origins of the Grinch decides to seek him out in order to gift him some much-needed Christmas spirit. Through the meddling of the Mayor of Whoville (Jeffrey Tambor), Big G’s old childhood rival, this plan backfires immensely, and after about an hour of the film’s runtime has expired already inspires him to “steal Christmas”. From there, all that’s needed to figure out what happens is a knowledge of the TV cartoon.

I must confess, I was a little surprised to learn that this was a Ron Howard-directed project when I first watched this movie, as everything about its atmosphere and imagery reminded me of Tim Burton (nothing like having your Christmas movie narrated by the one and only Hannibal Lecter, am I right?). From the live-action adaptation of Dr. Seuss’s Christmas classic, I expected something much jollier-looking overall, and while there is a certain goofiness about the dank, grimy images it’s not something that I feel is exactly appropriate for children in terms of tone until the classic story that they remember starts to kick in. Carrey as well, despite giving a terrific performance through his total commitment to the role, has an intensity about him as a result that is slightly off-putting, especially for the young’uns, and prone to be scary in some bits (his voice, made to sound like a mixture of Sean Connery and Walter Matthau with a touch of menacing growl for some reason, is largely to blame for this). The movie therefore comes dangerously close to being a children’s book adaptation meant for teens or adults, which doesn’t make for a fun situation for anyone. At some point, however, the film manages to rescue itself through alternatingly dedicated and passable performances (the former mainly from Carrey, the latter from most of the supporting cast), an abundance of heart (Old Grinchy probably had some to spare, considering the freakish mutation of his), and comedy that is surprisingly witty for what could have easily been a charmless adaptation of an acclaimed classic. The star that shines the brightest here is, as stated previously, the one and only Jim Carrey, whose role is so perfectly suited to his brand of comedy that you honestly believe that he might have actually been the Grinch in another life. Nearly unrecognizable under what I imagine is pounds and pounds of makeup and prosthetic fur (which won an Academy Award for Best Makeup), Carrey transforms the old grouch from a bitter and miserly recluse into a comic villain resembling a slightly more effective Dr. Evil (who in himself was an Ernst Stavro Blofeld parody), which ultimately makes him more accessible and sympathetic than his previous incarnation in the animated version. An electric screen presence, any scenes that he doesn’t appear in suffer severely from his absence (to borrow a pun from Entertainment Weekly’s Owen Gleiberman, he really does “Carrey the movie”), and the amount of time spent with him never feels like enough upon reaching the end of the movie, even in spite of its primary focus on his character, and this is when you know that something truly special has been created through an actor’s devotion. It’s what makes the first half of the movie fly by (despite having little to do with the original story), and what makes the Grinch’s change of heart ultimately all the sweeter.

While not on the same level as the 1966 television special by any stretch, the modern rendition of the Grinch’s tale will be entertaining enough to warrant an occasional viewing. As a warning to those who don’t like Jim Carrey, though, you’ll probably want to steer clear: this film is basically one extended, Christmas-ized version of one of his routines.