The holiday season is quickly approaching and that means it’s time for Christmas movies. Spirited is a new take on A Christmas Carol brought to us from Apple TV + and starring Will Ferrell and Ryan Reynolds.
Will Ferrell plays The Ghost of Christmas Present who along with a whole team has to help the unredeemable Clint Briggs(played by Ryan Reynolds) change his ways and become a better person.
There have been many iterations of A Christmas Carol throughout the years but what sets this movie apart is how clever it really is. It is explained that Scrooge was not the only one to be changed. In fact, the 3 ghosts are part of a whole company that chooses one subject that needs help changing, and spends a whole year studying the subject and setting up every single scenario. This was a really cool direction to go in.
I did not realize the movie was a full-on musical but the songs are all well-written. Pasek and Paul who are notably famous for writing songs for Dear Evan Hansen, The Greatest Showman, and La La Land write the songs for this movie as well. Some of the best songs include “Unredeemable”, “Good Afternoon”. and “Do a Little Good”
Ferrell and Reynolds have good chemistry together and the cast around them includes some fun performances from Octavia Spencer and Tracy Morgan.
I have to give credit to all the set pieces because they really look fantastic. Every time a scene changed I asked myself “how much did all this cost”? The movie has a reported budget of 75 million dollars and you can definitely see that.
I will say that at 2 hours and 7 minutes, the movie is a bit long. There are also way too many songs and even though the songs are good, they aren’t paced very well. We sometimes have 3 songs in 15 minutes and then no songs for 40 minutes.
Ryan Reynolds and Will Ferrell are not the best singers in the world but they do just fine and they seem to be having such a good time that you end up having a good time as well.
Not every joke lands and I can’t say that this movie will become a classic but Spirited is a fun, heartfelt musical that is a great start to kick off the holidays.
Spirited is available to watch in theatres as well as on Apple TV Plus.
