While I thought about my Christmas line up I considered 2 options; being kind, and just tearing this film apart, I've decided to do neither, I'll be fair to this movie, at least.
Right out of the gate I love Jim Carrey as the Grinch, he nails the energy of the character perfectly, and at times the Grinch is pretty funny, I'll get to them later. The Grinch also addresses something very relevant and interesting in this film when it comes to the modern culture surrounding Christmas, unfortunately though I feel that the message this film was trying to convey is completely ruined. What's the point in having a message about commercialism and materialism when Whoville in this film is literally everything that's wrong with Christmas; every single surface is plastered in obnoxious decorations and lights, people run around in a blind mob getting ready for the holiday with mountains of presents, maybe this film is a clever commentary on society, or maybe it's not that smart and I'm grasping at straws to find something good in this mess. I really don't like the way they portray Whoville in this film, and it's a shame that the film takes this direction. Speaking of directions the film shouldn't have taken, I hate Cindy Lou, she just annoys the fuck out of me, especially when she sings, it's bad, and to top it off, she's just not convincing, you don't buy that she's this cute little girl with a heart of gold and a true understanding of Christmas, she's just an annoying kid actor that you just don't buy. In fact really besides the Grinch and Max, no character in this film is particularly likable, really, they're so wrapped up in the all the presents and all the lights, that they're no better than the Grinch, they too have no clue what Christmas actually means, and have to be told by a little girl. And to be blunt, the Whos look fine when drawn in a book, but in live action, played by actors with fake dog noses and missing upper lips, it just looks weird. In fact everything in the film looks weird, the sets are stupid, the costumes are stupid, I get that they were trying to do Dr Seuss's style, but it looks ridiculous, everything looks fake and abstract and I just don't like it. You could make the argument that's it's just a kids film and it's based on a kids book so of course it's like that, so why then does this film have some really inappropriate jokes, it's not smart like a Pixar film, it's just crude and un funny, like a guy kissing a dog's arse, or the Grinch landing face first in a who's rack. It's a lot of dumb, immature comedy that works on children and teenagers at a stretch, but falls dead in the snow for adults. And when the film does go for the smarter humour it's often still not funny, like a joke the Grinch makes about racism, it just doesn't work. By contrast there were times in this film when I genuinely found it funny, but I was the only one who laughed at them, stuff like the joke about mistletoe, and the joke about the baby looking like someone's boss, which I think really says something about what this film appeals with, and it begs the question as to why this film can have some good humour and so much shit. I do however like a lot of the stuff in the Grinch's cave, I enjoyed a lot of the absurdity and, by contrast to the rest of the film, pretty funny humour, and the Mr Grinch song makes me laugh every time, I just can't control it. The Mr Grinch scene is however one of a few scenes in the film that are completely ruined by a for the kids mentality, by that I mean a need to have Jim Carrey make funny noises and faces and act super over the top dramatic. One time in particular in the film he does this, and I just couldn't forgive it, what could have been an effective warm moment, started so well, then got utterly destroyed because haha funny, I really can't forgive that, I fucking despise that choice, it broke my back with this film.
The Grinch is a film that I cannot like, there are things that work, like a small minority of the comedy, and Jim Carrey as the Grinch, but this film is riddled with annoying characters, dog arse comedy, a ridiculous and fake look to everything on screen, and an obvious and obviously failed attempt to convey a deeper message about the meaning of Christmas, one that is so utterly battered and crushed it breaths with a machine. This is a film that will appeal to children, but it's a film I loath, it's a disaster, and to be avoided at all costs.
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