Scrooged (1988)
Dir Richard Donner
Written by Mitch Glazer, Michael O’Donoghue (based on A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
Bill Murray, Karen Allen, John Forsythe, John Glover, Bobcat Godthwait, David Johansen, Carol Kane, Robert Mitchum, John Murray, Alfre Woodard, Nicholas Phillips, Michael J Pollard.
Based on the famed Ebenezer Scrooge story, sees CEO of the fictional network IBC Frank Cross (Murray), who is has a work-only life with only dollar signs in his eyes.
When at Christmas, he goes out of his way to make the lives of several people around him miserable, he is soon visited by a ghost of a former colleague (Forsythe) who warns him that he is about to be visited by three ghosts. Soon, he is reliving his past, catching a glimpse of the present lives of those he has wronged, and what the future has in store for him.
This movie has a fair amount going right with it, and I will get to that in a moment. But the big off for me is Murray’s performance. There are moments where he seems to either struggle with what Frank’s emotional state is (anger/sadness), and he plays it more comedic than anything (whether this was a directorial choice, or Murray’s own choice. He was coming off an acting hiatus when he filmed this and was only 38 when he filmed it. Some of his stronger acting styles were not as prominent yet, and for me he was the weakest part of the film.
The performances of those around him are somewhat better, but big names such as Forsythe and Mitchum barely get any screen time. The MVP for me is Woodard, who plays his long suffering assistant Grace. Her arc is the most wholesome, and she is criminally underbilled in the cast credits (I changed mine only due to her surname beginning with W, but it is not this way in the main credits). She is a cast member who always delivers.
Another up is Danny Elfman’s epic and always complementary gothic score to such films as these.
There are a many 1980s cameos from pop culture celebs at the time (Robert Goulet, Jamie Farr, Buddy Hackett, John Houseman, Lee Majors, Mary Lou Retton).
I didn’t love this, this time, and the primary reason is Murray.
2.5/5