According to screenwriter Susan Coyne, during the writing of A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens’ sweat-free creative process consisted of listening to the harmonies of everyday life that surrounded him. Marley? The name of a rickety waiter at the club. The setting? Decided upon after a new nanny was overheard telling the children a spooky story that repositioned Christmas Eve as a night where spirits from another world crossed over and walked among us. And chasing a beggar leads to a cemetery where the “meanest cur on two legs” (Christopher Plummer, taking his turn as Ebenezer) has just finished burying his business partner. This character, of course, provides the author with the crucial catchphrase of “Humbug!” (To his credit, Dickens ad-libbed both the “Bah!” and the name Scrooge). Dazzling to the eye, the parallel stories are told in a manner that is both reductive and flossy enough to appeal to those longing for a more old fashioned Christmas picture. Bharat Nalluri directs. (2017) — Scott Marks
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