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by Scott Batchelor, Contributing Writer

A Christmas Carol is a tale as old as time, told in essentially every medium ever made because of how recognizable the story is. At this point in its long history of different interpretations, for a new movie to tackle the story, it would have to do something unique. Spirited aims to play around with the lore, while also keeping the heart of the story grounded in the Charles Dickens classic. 

The movie opens with a woman coming face-to-face with her Christmas yet to come, and she quickly repents and changes to become a better person. Spirited knows you are familiar with the source material and wastes no name in explaining how the Christmas Spirits work. You have seen a version of this story, most likely every year. No reason to use its two-hour runtime insulting you. 

From here, the wider world is explained via Will Ferrell’s Ghost of Christmas Present (Present for short). Under the watchful eye of Jacob Marley (Patrick Page), the spirits behind the scenes work with an agency to determine which soul they are going to save for the following year. This is sadly glossed over quickly by a quick musical montage. It feels like there is plenty of story to tell and fun to have by looking at our new Scrooge over the course of the year, and not just during the winter holidays. It leads to so little — they could have cut it and just explained that it takes a year long in a single line, and we would get the information all the same.

After the aforementioned successful soul being saved, Present reveals that he could have retired 46 years ago and become human again. He is considering finally taking the plunge, but instead is drawn to Clint (Ryan Reynolds) as his next soul to save. He gets some push back because Clint is unredeemable; nothing can be done to save him. Present doesn’t accept defeat and is granted the resources to save Clint. 

This movie is built off the star power of Reynolds and Ferrell. They’re two top tier A-listers who people would easily pay to see on screen, and the chemistry pays off. Reynolds has been getting flack as of late for playing the same role in every movie, and there are shades of that here. At times, you can’t separate the actor and character, but I think overall, he was able to be a bit less sarcastic and didn’t have a smarmy response to everything. This is especially impressive as the character lends itself to taking nothing seriously, but it is not as Reynolds-y as you would expect.

As smart as this movie is with the story beats, I am surprised by how off the pacing is. The setup before we get to the Christmas Carol part feels like it takes a while. Every major character gets a song of their own, but we get that song well after we get to know them, so it doesn’t add much. Once the spirits start arriving, there is some fun to be had, like Present falling for Clint’s assistant, Kimberly (Octavia Spencer), and as a result, Kimberly is able to see him. By introducing this love interest, we are able to see more of Will Ferrell interacting with the major players, and it is clear he is having a good time. 

Both of the leads play a majority of the film straight when not singing, which allows us to get enamored with the Christmas feeling. If Ferrell was hamming it up, I think it would distract us from the story, which should be the centerpiece when revisiting a classic. The heart is very much front and center, as the movie continues down the path we have seen many times before. However, we learn quickly that it is not just Clint that Present is trying to redeem. We are introduced to some fun twists about the characters that clear up the motivations, and overall, the new story beats work, or at the very least, don’t take you out of the experience. 

The main selling point that sets this apart from other Christmas Carols is the musical numbers. Within about 10 minutes, the first big piece is performed and the production value looks good. The choreography is crisp and the song is upbeat enough to be toe-tapping along to get you in the Christmas musical mood. The rest of the songs are hit or miss — “Good Afternoon” is the first duet in film, and it sticks the landing in such a fun way, cementing Ferrell and Reynolds as a duo that needs to do more together. 

Spirited is the type of movie that lets you know all the pieces in play, and it delivers. The leads play a stripped-back version of themselves to fit the tone of the story. The music is mostly good but forgettable. That doesn’t take away how I felt in the moment, though. The real star of the movie is the story itself. The lore is played around with in ways that stay true to the characters without insulting the source material. This is a love letter to the classic tale we all know and love, and you could do worse with the adaptations out there. Spirited gives you everything you might want out of a Christmas movie.

Score: 7/10

Spirited is currently streaming on Apple TV +

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