Spirited (12.02.22)

 

If given the choice between being haunted by ghosts to fix my character defects and having the life of a Who child endangered for the same purpose, I’d pick endangering the Who child every time. Ghosts are scary, especially that Christmas Yet-to-Come guy with his accusatory pointing. The ghosts in Spirited aren’t that bad, though. In fact, they can be downright pleasant (including Christmas Yet-to-Come—Tracy Morgan's voice will do that). Downright pleasant is a good way to describe the entire Spirited film, in fact, even if the words “overlong” and “meandering” also apply.

People have been adapting Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol since Dickens himself tweaked the prose for public book readings, and I don’t think they’ll ever stop. It is, by every definition, a classic. So how does one keep the story fresh? By turning it into a musical starring Will Ferrell and Ryan Reynolds, of course! Because guess what? It turns out that these two can actually sing and dance pretty decently, whether through the subtlest of auto tunes or just being unfairly gifted compared to the rest of us, and their comedic chemistry is just as fun to watch as you’d expect. The musical numbers in Spirited, written by the same team that created Dear Evan Hansen and The Greatest Showman, is where the film shines the brightest, from the clever lyrics and catchy tunes to the exceptional choreography. And keep in mind that Spirited is indeed a full-fledged musical-- we're not just talking a song here and there. I may be a Scrooge that welcomes Who children falling off mountains and generally avoids most musicals, but even I enjoyed Spirited in these moments.

When the actual plot really starts to get underway and the songs become slightly less frequent, this joy does dim a bit, however. The story of Spirited, which focuses on Ferrell’s Christmas Present character just as much as it does Reynold's miserly Scrooge stand-in, is a bit over-stuffed and meandering. There is a long stretch or two where things kind of stall and the film can’t decide who the main character should be any more than the actual characters can. At these points I almost forgot Spirited was a musical, up until another song came around and kicked the energy up into high gear once more. There is no reason for this film to be as long as it is or for the moral to become apparent so late in the game.

But when Spirited is good, it is very good. Both leads seem to have checked their comedic egos at the door, because neither one of them is overtly silly to the point of stealing the show and both of them allow nice moments to be nice and worthwhile lessons to land without the caveat of an unnecessary joke afterwards. Overall Spirited is a fantastic way to kick off this year’s Christmas season, and these particular ghosts are welcome at my place any day.

Spirited is now available on Apple TV+.

 

This review was first published in The Keizertimes on December 2nd, 2022. Visit at http://keizertimes.com/