Spirted is a modern musical adaptation/sequel of A Christmas Carol. The movie opens on a modern day 'client' who is getting the 'Christmas Carol' treatment in order to change, Scrooge(Will Farrell) has played the part of the Ghost of Christmas Present for two hundred years and is looking for a challenge. He along with the team of spirits who redeem a human once a year in the CC tradition select select an 'unredeemable' PR exec Clint(Ryan Reynolds) as their next target. He is not an easy mark and maybe Scrooge has something more to learn!
The cast are all serviceable but none are particularly inspired. Farrell is more comfortable than Reynolds with the song-and-dance aspect of the movie but neither really has much affinity with either discipline so the result is relatively lackluster. Why Farrell and Reynolds rather than Nathan Lane and Sean Hayes? Octavia Spencer, delightful as always, has the most powerful voice in the cast but isn't given much chance to use it. Sunita Mani and Lily Sullivan pop in for some nice comedic moments but are underutilized.
Despite it's star power and obvious budget there is a flatness about the movie, doesn't have the edginess of Scrooged, the emotional payoff of a straight forward CC riff, or the laughs of The Muppet Christmas Carol. For all the trimmings it registers more in-line with Netflix's glut of mediocre holiday content(passively watchable) rather than something of actual quality or uniqueness.
Currently streaming on Apple+.
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