Spirited, 2022.
Directed by Sean Anders.
Starring Ryan Reynolds, Will Ferrell, Octavia Spencer, Sunita Mani, Aimee Carrero, Joe Tippett, Marlow Barkley, Maximilian Lee Piazza, Tracy Morgan, Jen Tullock, Andrea Anders, Adam Grupper, Rose Byrne, Naheem Garcia, and Judi Dench.
SYNOPSIS:
A musical version of Charles Dickens’s story of a miserly misanthrope who is taken on a magical journey.
In Spirited, for roughly 200 years, Will Ferrell’s Ghost of Christmas Present has served on a supernatural panel alongside Past and Future (with the former played by Sunita Mani and the latter voiced by Tracy Morgan), performing reconnaissance every day on one rude and bitter soul until Christmas, when it’s time to execute the redeeming process. Essentially, the plan amounts to a riff on A Christmas Carol but with simulated memory recreations, tap-dancing musical numbers (coming from La La Land songwriters Benj Pasek and Justin Paul), several spins on perspective, love in the air, and of course, a modern touch (ruining lives through social media heavily comes into play).
Some of these plot devices function as welcome gifts, and others might as well be coal. Frequent Will Ferrell collaborator Sean Anders (the Instant Family director co-writes the script alongside John Morris) has one too many ideas on deck, and there’s no shaking the feeling that cutting down or axing a few of them would not only drastically tighten up the running time and pacing, but also allow for the elements that do work to shine with a little more Christmas cheer.
The first issue is the creative choice to make Spirited a musical, as not even the previously mentioned songwriting talent is enough to hide the low-energy and generic choreography and questionable vocal performances from Will Ferrell and co-star Ryan Reynolds. Perhaps what’s truly shocking is that Spirited is most engaging when the film allows them to act, getting inside one another’s heads and flipping the script on each other.
Regarding the songs, only one of them is particularly memorable, and even that’s mostly because a certain lyric is most likely destined to become endlessly quotable throughout the holidays; it’s a truly stupid joke that initially had me cringing, only for it to win me over through lyrical delivery. As for the rest of the songs, they bog down an already bloated 2+ hour running time.
Part of the reason Spirited runs so long is understandable. Again, the film centers on the Ghost of Christmas Present, who is beginning to question whether his centuries of work have meant anything. Supposedly, anytime the crew successfully converts someone back on a more kindhearted and respectable moral path, there are ripple effects that positively influence hundreds of other lives (think about the classic story and how many people likely became far happier from Ebenezer Scrooge’s eventual change of heart). He can make a choice to finally retire and live out the rest of his days as a mortal human being or continue the never-ending cycle.
Ghost of Christmas Present doesn’t just decide on taking up another round but also chooses a target labeled unredeemable. That would be Ryan Reynolds’ Clint Briggs, a PR spin doctor that knows how to game the media cycle for his clients and destroy the lives of the opposition with handy research from his assistant Kimberly (Octavia Spencer), who is suffering a moral crisis after years of doing so, and now being told to dig up dirt on a sixth-grader to give Clint’s niece the upper hand in an elementary school presidential election.
Clint is not actually in the girl’s life, opting to hand over money and gifts in the wake of her mother’s tragic passing while rejecting parental duties in passing that responsibility onto his dimwitted but lovably well-meaning younger brother. Nevertheless, the girl seeks his advice and naturally receives some of the worst possible, with Kimberly being roped into the scheme. It’s an inner conflict that Ghost of Christmas Present instantly recognizes in Kimberly, causing him to let his guard down and make himself visible to her, awkwardly striking up a connection whilst preparing for the annual Christmas conversion.
Amusingly, Ghost of Christmas Present utterly fails at her job; she’s dealt with so many nasty and ugly perps while no doubt battling some loneliness that she loses all sense of professionalism and ends up sleeping with Clint. The situation establishes him as tough to sway, just as capable as reading others while moving Ghost of Christmas Present into a double-duty role for the night. None of the usual tricks down a traumatic and sad memory lane work, and Spirited genuinely feels clever when Clint is blowing up those attempts at a psychological breakthrough.
Then around halfway, there’s a reveal alongside Clint’s prying into the former human life of Ghost of Christmas Present (all of the workers involved in this operation come from the afterlife) that, while smart, also means that there’s twice as much for this narrative to explore. That’s not to say it would be impossible to do so, but the bland musical numbers, a transition into fish-out-of-water humor, romantic love interests, and a jarringly rushed ending that’s neither devastating nor happy (considering it moves so fast it’s hard to feel anything) all suck away the momentum and are obstacles blocking otherwise compelling performances (arguably the best will Ferrell and Ryan Reynolds have been in years). Spirited tries to deliver too much Christmas joy, freezing cold its endearing aspects.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★
Robert Kojder is a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association and the Critics Choice Association. He is also the Flickering Myth Reviews Editor. Check here for new reviews, follow my Twitter or Letterboxd, or email me at MetalGearSolid719@gmail.com
