Again Christmas season is upon us, and there are a lot of Christmas movies and TV shows. Apple got the rights to this movie in 2019 after a heated battle against other bidders, it was written by Sean Ander and John Morrison. This movie had been lined up for Will Ferrell to take the lead role with Ryan Reynolds playing alongside him on another major lead role. In November 2022, Spirited was released as a film. The direction of the movie was done by Anders who once directed Daddy’s Home. It premiered in theaters before being available on Apple TV+ streaming platform for Christmas.
Spirited is inspired from Charles Dickens’ novel A Christmas Carol that has taken many forms over the years in popular culture. The novel narrates Ebenezer Scrooge’s story, a man who lives frugally and does not try to establish connections with anyone else throughout his life. One night he gets visited by the ghost of his late business partner that appears to him as three spirits: The Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Future. The job at hand is simple: make him more grateful which happens toward the end of the book eventually though in order to achieve this goal he must learn first and foremost about himself. When it came out in the 1800s it created ripples around people even today its impact is felt all over.
However, this film seeks to give an entirely new interpretation of a time-honored narrative. Will Ferrell plays Ghost of Christmas Present while Reynolds features as Clint Briggs (a social media maven grappling with deep-seated challenges and attitude issues.) Octavia Spencer stars as Kimberly one of Briggs most trusted assistants while Patrick Page takes on Ferrell’s boss role.Sunita Mani appears as Ghosts Of Christmases Past followed Loren G.Woods as Ghost Of Xmas Yet To Come while Judi Dench also made a guest appearance. This film has a unique soundtrack making it different from all other Christmas movies this year.
A completely new life for Charles Dickens’ enduring classic, A Christmas Carol is given in Spirited. The task of the Ghost of Christmas Present in this adaptation is to deliver . Every year, spirits of Christmas must choose one wicked soul on Earth. The endgame here is that by the time they are done with their task, they need to have changed their dark and evil ways so that they become kinder individuals towards others. Continuing to move through his job just as he has done for many years now, though this year he makes a huge mistake; the Ghost of Christmas Present (Ferrel). Clint Briggs (Reynolds) is chosen by him for a specific reason – out of New York, Clint works as a media consultant who has handled countless high-profile clients including presidents of America. His company depends directly on chaos and confusion thus intentionally spreading deliberate false information to benefit its clientele base.
In the words of Present, he is “perfect” for being picked that year. Nevertheless, Clint, according to Jacob (Patrick Page), who is in charge of the afterlife, is considered hopeless and as such, Present and his team will have their hands full. It is now time to face Clint after a whole year of research and preparation for this job so that they can make him change his ways. The future of many people around the world hangs on this task because if they manage to turn Clint into a good person out of his vast network and influence it would trigger off something major.
The plan springs into action when Clint’s niece enters his office announcing her bid for Student Council President at her school; she wants assistance from him as she has an opponent but Clint advises her to launch a smear campaign against him where she should depict him as a “snot-nosed elite.” However, silently she complains about Kimberly (Spencer), who got all that America could ever offer but lost some part of herself: dignity. Present looks after everything sure that he has set himself up rightly in life.
Doubts had been planting themselves within Clint’s mind over time leaving everyone more convinced than ever that he was beyond saving. Haunting him backfires quickly since Clint isn’t just seductive to some but also ready to run away from his ghosts turning them against whoever uses them when necessary for his own good. This leads to a struggle between these two men with Clint keeping up resistance toward seeing any bad in himself occasionally slipping in a bad joke or having the comedic beats mistimed by present who focuses on getting through it without losing himself again chasing after what makes him happy. And then there’s this weird romance thrown in there on top making this movie even weirder than it was already going towards.
Spirited tries too hard to be meta and over-the-top on purpose. When we first hear other characters singing just after the opening scene, incoming workers and assistants look at each other in confusion saying, “Why are they singing?” Another worker tells them that this is a musical. The songs have some catchy parts but feel unnecessary. While it is unique and different from the original story, it undermines what this movie was about and what the original tale tried to accomplish with it as a whole.
Taking the film seriously becomes increasingly difficult as Ferrel belts out a song about what retirement might be like with shots of a statue that reads Dolly Parton is a soul we’ve reclaimed. Maybe, this is the whole point of the movie. It is a comedy that does not pretend to be anything other than it is and breathes life into an old tale much-told. There are some subtexts woven about contemporary society such as Clint being representative of media industry powerhouses and showing what it takes to get to the top. However, his secretary Kimberly seems very sorry for her role in Clint’s company but despite feeling bad about it, she keeps working in his company.
She once tried quitting but was unable to do so because she feared the future and whatever it holds for her. Kimberly’s problem runs through the entire movie. Each character has their own issues including Present and Clint and cancel culture can be seen everywhere in this world–Clint even tells his niece to go for it just so that she destroys her rival’s chances. With such stars in this movie throughout, there would be high expectations about its quality. This feels like a Reynolds and Ferrell movie from start to finish except that here they have employed their brand of humor all along throughout their careers. A Christmas musical comedy? That sounds superb particularly if done in Anna and the Apocalypse fashion.
However, the songs feel forced musically as if they were thrown in to make the movie more comedic than it inherently should be. At one point during a song Present gives up and throws up his hands when told by his boss not to sing anymore thus giving off an impression that he sets for the rest of film himself too. Why do they even sing? The characters themselves don’t know why either. Every number appears elaborate with lots of backup dancers while many characters belt out big numbers until they run out of breaths thereafter.
Spirited fails abjectly at balancing its music, and not only as a Christmas movie but also as a musical. However, Spirited is, unfortunately, lacking much spirit in the story. Both Clint and Present work for large corporations where they hold executive positions and whereas Clint seems to be content with his job; he probes Present implying that his role may not actually be bringing the change he thinks it does. Between this narrative and the identity crisis that its melodies seem to suffer from -is it modern or classical?-the plot becomes a convoluted jumble of fragments. What’s more, the major twist is revealed early on so that everything after that just feels like an unnecessary long trip.
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