It's Christmas, Carol! (2012) starring Emmanuelle Vaugier, Carrie Fisher, Olivia Cheng, Tygh Runyan, Patti Allan, Chelah Horsdal directed by Michael Scott Movie Review

It's Christmas, Carol! (2012)   3/53/53/53/53/5


Emmanuelle Vaugier in It's Christmas, Carol! (2012)

Time for Another Carol

As a lover of Christmas movies I have long known that Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol" has been the source for numerous adaptations, what is surprising is the number of movies which have taken the basic idea and re-imagined it to a more contemporary setting. So when I read the synopsis for "It's Christmas, Carol!" I though here we go again, in fact it almost sounded like this was a remake of "A Carol Christmas" starring Tori Spelling. Well the good news is that it isn't and it does some interesting things as instead of having ghosts of Christmas past, present and that is yet to come we just have one ghost, the ex boss who acts as her guide. It allows for Carrie Fisher to be in the movie as the ghost just as much as Emmanuelle Vaugier who is are modern day Scrooge character. But whilst a good twist the actual substance of the movie lacks bite to make it really come to life.

It's Christmas Eve and as the head of a publishing empire Carol (Emmanuelle Vaugier - Reverse Angle) is not exactly popular with her staff who are frankly scared of her. Whilst at a Christmas party Carol gets a shock as whilst in the washroom Eve (Carrie Fisher), her late boss appears and takes her on a journey through her past, present and future in the hope of showing her the error of her ways as she has become money and career focussed.

Carrie Fisher in It's Christmas, Carol! (2012)

When it comes to re-imagining Dickens' "A Christmas Carol" a lot of people know "Scrooged" with Bill Murray but it isn't the only one and there are a suprising amount of TV movies which have done the same. The trouble is that you end up comparing all these re-imaginings to "Scrooged" and nonecome close to that movie and "It's Christmas, Carol!" also comes up short. It basically lacks the sharpness, the wit and intelligence to make it more than just another pleasant but forgetful distraction.

Having said that "It's Christmas, Carol!" has some nice touches and with Carrie Fisher cast as Eve the "Marley" character I actually like that they did away with the other ghosts and just allowed her to be the spectral guide. There is also some interesting depth to the story with Carol being career focussed because of her poor childhood and not visiting her mother because she minds of her poor past. It is just a shame that the writing isn't sharper and has better comedy because it is what lets the movie down.

What this all boils down to is that "It's Christmas, Carol!" is not the completely ordinary movie I expected and it has some nice twists and depth which other re-imaginings of Dickens' "A Christmas Carol" lack. But in the end whilst it has some plus points it lacks the sharp writing to lift it from being just another update of a very familiar story.

Tags: TV Christmas Movies, Christmas Movies, A Christmas Carol


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