THE GRINCH

Directed by Ron Howard. Starring Jim Carrey

Unquestionably one of the truly great works of American literature – I am being entirely serious here – Dr. Seuss’ The Grinch Who Stole Christmas still doesn’t seem in itself to contain enough plot development to justify big-screen treatment (plot: Grinch nicks all the presents, then realises there’s more to Christmas than presents, cue collective ‘ahhh!’) Still, some accursed exec in a Hollywood office has deemed it the perfect vehicle for a new Jim Carrey movie, and with the latter’s massive box-office muscle backed up by a blitz of special-effects overkill, it seems that the race for biggest-grossing Christmas movie of 2000 is over before it ever got started.

The Grinch (Carrey) hates Christmas. And with good reason: upon his entry to the world, a nasty stork dropped him in a nearby tree, where the poor thing was forced to watch all manner of seasonal festivities unfold while he wilted in the snow (He later lost the love of his life over a Christmas gift). Years down the line, he has mutated into a malicious misanthropic evildoer intent on wrecking Christmas for all concerned, which is where we join the action.

With shameless jobsworth hack Ron Howard (Apollo 13, Ransom) directing, and a cute lickle kid called Cindy-Lou providing the film’s main human character, all is perfectly set up for out-and-out disaster. And having cooped himself up in ‘serious’ projects like Truman Show of late, Carrey is primed to explode back into hyperslapshtick mode – which he does, to frequently excruciating effect.

Nevertheless, despite the inevitable overdose of cutesy-kiddy sentiment, The Grinch transforms to be infinitely more acceptable Christmas dross than most of its recent precursors. It’s magnificently simple, its incredible visual lushness comes close to recalling The Wizard of Oz – and anyway, the boys have warned me that if I say a single bad word against the thing, they will hit me in the neck with a big stick. (I’ve never been forgiven for dissing Godzilla).

OK, a Christmas movie parading such an anti-consumerist slant could be accused of hypocrisy, given that it cost some $130million to make – but hey, it’s the season of love and understanding, and anyone who presumes to argue with something like this must be a hard-hearted bastard indeed. We give it our seal of approval. Have a very merry one, by the way. [CF]