MOVIE: The Grinch: why it’s fun to hate Christmas

Paul O’Rourke

IT’S the middle of November and the festive season is rapidly approaching.

One way to tell Rudolph is already planning his route is to watch the early arrival of yuletide yarns at your local cineplex, something that seems to get earlier and earlier every year. 

In fact it’s now possible to watch films like ‘Halloween’ and ‘The Nutcracker’ on the same day, further blurring the shaky lines between Samhain and Santa.  

If you’re one of those enthusiastic Christmas sweater wearing types who gets the decorations out in September, you’re already in a joyous mood and won’t be deterred by the naysayers as you wait in line for the first preview of the latest Christmas movie.

If on the other hand you’re a bit of a grinch, you might just be in the same line for the same film.

Yes, Universal Pictures brings us ‘The Grinch’, a movie for lovers and haters of Christmas alike.

The animated story of the grumpy green grouch takes a new twist, as we focus on the eternally jovial village of Whoville, and their preparations for the biggest festive celebrations ever.

This gets the goat of old grinchy, who lives a lonely life on a mountain top outside of town with his faithful dog, Max.

He sets about hatching a plan to ruin Christmas for everyone, because if he’s going to be miserable, by golly everyone else has to be miserable too!

It was always going to be impossible to out-do the performance which Jim Carrey gave in ‘How the Grinch Stole Christmas’, so Benedict Cumberbatch doesn’t even try to ham it up.

He does do a fine job in his own crusty way, and aided by a clever and funny script, with great attention to detail in the set piece visuals, this is probably a better film than its predecessor.

The first half in particular where the Grinch is being especially grumpy, is peculiarly charming and amusing.

This is a fun time at the movies for lovers and haters of Christmas combined, and we award it a review score of 3.5 grouchy stars.