A BBC adaptation of A Christmas Carol worried me a little after watching the recent War of the Worlds series. I was not disappointed. Though neither was I left satisfied with some of their choices to change the traditional well-loved Dickensian story.
Before watching I held the series in rather high stead, although I was worried after they messed the war of the worlds up so royally, the cast and the crew were held in rather high stead. Steven Knight is the writer of both this and the fantastic series ‘Peaky Blinders’. With Tom Hardy and Ridley Scott serving as the executive producers which fills any film nerd with the hope that this is going to be a good one.
Firstly, I think the dark and gory take on a classic was well portrayed. It wasn’t some Tarantino style blood bath but neither was it a PG series, filling each episode with what I would deem a necessary amount of darkness and pain.
As for the music style, I thought it was extremely fitting with the tempo merging perfectly with the style, emotion and the story being told in its entirety. It isn’t often where a music choice sticks out to me as I am not particularly that musically inlined but this decision stuck with me and remains one of the best things about this adaptation. Moreover, some of the shots and the visions of Tiny Tim’s predicted death really impressed me and I thought they were fantastically done.
One critique that I cannot ignore but must argue that it is definitely a matter of personal opinion is how much Scrooge talked to himself. I am a big believer of only using dialogue when it is extremely necessary and I feel like Knight was a little lazy in how he portrayed Scrooges thoughts and feeling at certain points in the show. Which is odd especially as it is such a famous story that most, if not everyone knows the story begging the question, why do you need to explain every little bit in the way you are? We know what is happening! He didn’t need to lead us through the story as he did.
Ultimately I would deem the adaptation a success but it is by no means fantastic. it has its issues and does often stray from the true meaning to the original story. However, it is important to allow things to be interpreted in different ways and embrace change.
3/5 Stars
The Film Nerdette