Movie
Section B • Page 7
The University Daily Kansan November 16,2000
The Grinch steals Christmas with fanciful, comedic style
The Associated Press
Jim Carrey has ruined Christmas!
Just kidding, Carrey's update of the season's most beloved ogre, Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas, is a hoot from start to finish, a showcase for the actor's manic physical comedy and director Ron Howard's sye for the fanciful.
In lesser hands, this easily could have been a seasick crocodile of a movie. The combination of Carrey and Imagine Entertainment, founded by Howard and producing partner Brian Grazer, proves just right for bringing Theodor S. Geisel's lyrical, off-kilter world to life.
Together with a cast of colorful Whovilians and a skilled team of designers, Carrey, Howard and Grazer have created an enthralling comic fantasy.
Accented by narration from Anthony Hopkins, the movie trims out the taut fable with flashbacks to the Grinch's unhappy childhood, which cemented his hatred of Christmas and the Whos. The film weaves in a host of new Who characters around the story's three principals: the Grinch, his dog, Max, and Cindy Lou Who (played by newcomer Taylor Momsen).
There's the ponderous Who mayor (Jeffrey Tambor); the Who he woos, Martha May Whovier (Christine Baranski); Cindy Lou's folks (Bill Irwin and Molly
Shannon); and the mayor's toadying alde (Howard's brother Clint).
They and the townsfolk are caught up in the crass commercialism of Christmas like Wal-Mart shoppers at 6 p.m. Dec. 24.
Only Cindy Lou questions the grabby, gift-giving holiday machinery. Her curiosity turns upward to Mount Crumpet, home of the mythical Grinch — the only other creature who seems immune to Christmas madness.
The Grinch is as much a trickster as an ogre, giving Carrey leeway to prance and chortle with psychotic glee. He terrorizes "Who-venile delinquents" who taunt him, makes prank calls to Whos and visits Whoville incognito to lob wrenches into the holiday works. Amid a crowd of Whos, he strategically places mistletoe to let them know exactly where the Whos can kiss him.
Many of the strongest moments come with the Grinch alone in his cave, celebrating his misanthropic life. It's not just the green sasquatch makeup that makes the Grinch seem real; beneath the fur is Carrey hurling himself into the Grinch persona as fully as he did with comic Andy Kaufman in Man on the Moon.
Carrey is a whirlwind of kinetic energy whose far-ranging intonations and body language flesh out a hysterically funny Grinch.
There's amusing interaction among the Grinch and the Whos
early on, though at times it feels like the gags slipped in to fill time before he concocts his grand scheme of filching Christmas. But the give-and-take between the Grinch and Cindy Lou truly charms.
"Nice kid," the Grinch utters after Cindy Lou states that even the Grinch deserves a happy Christmas. "Ba-a-ad judge of character."
Taylor Momsen, only 5 when she landed the role, is a marvelous pixie who evokes touching compassion when she confronts the Grinch. Instead of the innocent babe of the cartoon, she plays a proactive Cindy Lou who is the linchpin to the Grinch's reclamation and the conscience that shakes her community out of its holiday materialism.
Tremendous credit goes to Howard and Grazer's design team, which fabricated costumes, makeup and sets that blaze with color, whimsy and good cheer.
The Grinch's lair is a wondrous collage of gizmos pieced together with objects from Who trash, which is shot up a pipe and dumped near his door. ("It's amazing what these Whos throw away," the Grinch mutters. "One man's toxic sludge is another man's pot-pourri.")
The mix adds up to a juicy roast beast of a movie that's sure to join the book and TV cartoon as holiday perennials.
Find it, sell it buy it in the Kansan Classified
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or just read them for the fun of it!!!!!!
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