Written by Linda
April 17, 2010
Simply put, Jim Carrey is a complete freak.
I'm sure I was not the only one of a certain "old enough to know better" generation that had apprehensions about the classic Dr. Seuss Christmas story about the Grinch being made into a live action film. There hasn't been a particularly good track record of cartoon-to-action flicks (for instance The Flintstones, Dick Tracy, and, I'd argue, all the Batman films). But I personally avoided The Grinch because, for once, it was a cartoon that I cared about.
But then someone hands you a DVD and.
Jim Carrey's version of The Grinch is not as bad as I feared. In fact, if they had to do a live action version, there is really no other choice to play the part. Simply put, Jim Carrey is a complete freak. He is like watching a train wreck—abhorrent in his green fuzzy suit and Rick Baker (the "Monster Maker") makeup—and you simply cannot look away. It is just too bad that they had to pad his excellent performance with the semblance of a gushy plot.
The original cartoon version of The Grinch is about half an hour long, from what I remember. A nasty green fellow, with a creepy-as-hell grin, lives up on a pointy mountain top with his sad-looking dog Max. On Christmas Eve, he goes down into the town of Whoville, where everyone is excessively chirpy and has been shopping shopping shopping for Christmas. With a big "I'll show 'em," he steals all of their presents to basically break them and show him who's the bitter boss. But alas! The Whos in Whoville aren't defeated... they instead gather together and sing Christmas songs, because it ain't about presents, it's about LOVE.
Now, the live-action version of The Grinch is a freakin' hour and 45 minutes long! You do the math. Of course they can't take such a simple story and stretch it like Silly Putty to fill the space, so the filmmakers have added a bit of childhood history for the Grinch, and, get this, a love interest. What the...? Why is he a bitter "adult"? Well, it's all because a GIRL. Hmmm. I didn't buy it.
But the set decoration, in all of its 3-D Dr. Seussian glory, is really a treat. The people of Whoville, with their claymation piggy noses, are inadvertently creepier than the Grinch (Ron Howard, in a DVD interview, gleefully exclaims how cute they are... ewww.).
Though a "whoot" to watch, Jim Carrey's Grinch isn't really scary enough. Little Cindy Lou Who (Taylor Momsen) sure wasn't fooled for a second, and neither is the audience, really. I was hoping for a live reenactment of a scene from the cartoon where the Grinch slithers under a carpet like a snake, only to have his head emerge with that evil smile on his face (gives me shivers just thinking about it).
But Carrey IS funny, I'll grant him that. With his big production of choosing what to wear on his trip into town, it only made me wonder if, technically, he considered himself to be naked when he pranced around in only his green fuzzy glory. Something to think about.
DVD NOTES
The most interesting tidbits on the DVD are the many lil' documentaries about the making of The Grinch. These include special focuses on the makeup, the set design, and "Who School" (which explains that many of the people in Whoville were Cirque de Soleil acrobats!). There is no audio commentary (that I found at least), but don't worry, there is plenty of grinning boyish Ron Howard in the "making of" segments to satisfy the most hardcore viewers. In a special section for kids, there are some games, sing-alongs, and an activity where you can "dress the Grinch" by moving the arrow around to select outfits. I'm not sure if a kid would find this section particularly interesting or entertaining... I think the activities simultaneously overestimate and underestimate kids' attention spans. If the studio was smart, they would have included the original Dr. Seuss storybook (or cartoon!) on the DVD as well. But maybe Dr. Seuss would have rolled over in his grave just long enough to snatch his good name back.
