Spirited
Following a another successful haunting, the Ghost of Christmas Present is trying to work out who to haunt next.
‘Present’ discovers a despicable man by the name of Clint Briggs, and he begs his boss Jacob Marley to be able to haunt him, even though he is an ‘unredeemable’.
Marley reluctantly agrees, after Present reminds him of a previous successful unredeemable ‘save’. So ‘Present’ – along with ‘Past’ and ‘Yet to Come’ research for a year leading up to the haunt.
When time comes to finally haunt him, things backfire, when Briggs is unable to be frightened, rather finding the whole ordeal hilarious. He sneaks his way into their world and hounds Present to find out who he was, and exactly who was the unredeemable from years ago?
Direction
From comedy writer director Sean Anders comes a unique retelling of Dicken’s A Christmas Carol.
The choreography, and the colours and lighting are superb, and at times you feel like you are watching a real life play.
Cast/Characters
Will Ferrell plays ‘present’ – who is ready to retire back to earth having been doing his role for several hundred years.
Ryan Reynolds plays Briggs, who brings his own charm and persona to the role. For those tired of him playing the same role as he always does – will probably not enjoy this.
Other cast members include Patrick Page as Jacob Morley, Octavia Spenser as Kimberly (Brigg’s assistant, and the object of ‘Present’s affection), Andrea Anders (sister of director Sean) – Brigg’s late sister, Sunita Mani as ‘Past’, Tracey Morgan as the voice of Yet to Come, PJ Byrne, Rose Byrne, Judi Dench and Jimmy Fallon.
Breakdown
A solid re-telling of Charles Dicken’s classic A Christmas Carol, with Will Ferrell taking the role of ‘Ghost of Christmas Present’. He works for Jacob Marley (the ghost who helped haunt Ebeneezer Scrooge in the original story).
He is ready to retire back to human life after almost 200 years haunting ‘redeemables’ before he sees Clint Briggs, and begs to haunt him – despite him being an ‘unredeemable’. The constant mention of there being ONE other unredeemable makes fairly obvious reveal once it happens.
This starts a series of hilarious haunting, where Briggs can’t be broken. Instead he slowly befriends ‘Present’ and wants to know more about him. This ** spoiler ** leads Present to reveal who he was when he was human… he WAS Ebeneezer Scrooge!
This is completely hilarious in how meta it is, especially given the world is already aware of how the Dickens tale goes (with Present forgetting the character of Tiny Tim). There are some other fun meta jokes as well (poking fun at the pandemic and what a good boy’s name starting with R could be – something I can relate to!)
The musical numbers are simply fantastic. The lyrics, the choreography, the use of colour, lighting etc – is simply breathtaking. I don’t overly appreciate music, but found all the songs simply fantastic. The addition of Jacob knowing that this is indeed a musical is another fun addition too.
Another big up is how much heart it has. ‘Present’ who wants to be human again to find love and falling in love with Briggs’ assistant Kimberly (played by the always fantastic Octavia Spenser). They obviously are ‘meant to be’ due to her being able to see him too.
There is another shock reveal in the ending that you will see coming a mile away – but it works for the overall narrative structure of the film. This tugs at the heartstrings in ‘just’ the right amount.
There are some fun cameos by the likes of Rose Byrne, and Judi Dench (playing herself! during the hilarious Good Afternoon song).
Some of the songs to look out for are; Ripple (during the closing credits), and Unredeemable.
Overall
Despite being slightly too long (at 126m), I really enjoyed this one. Ferrell can be too much at times in other films, but here he shines. A sweet film (with some all too obvious reveals). The musical numbers are fantastic, and are what makes this film so good. A ‘little’ bit of editing could have made this a 4.5.
4/5
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