How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000)
Genre: Christmas/Family
Release Year: 2000
MPAA Rating: PG
Director: Ron Howard
Content Warnings: crude humor, suggestive content
Overview
Theodor “Dr. Suess” Geisel published his Christmas classic How the Grinch Stole Christmas! in 1957 in protest of the holiday’s commercial cheapening. In 1966, the book was adapted into a 26-minute made-for-television animated film of the same name, garnering popularity alongside its Christmas special brethren (1964’s Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, 1965’s A Charlie Brown Christmas, etc.)
The animated original achieved “Classic” status and endures as a staple of the season. Then, the 21st century rolled around… and with it, the live-action recreation starring Jim Carrey and a whole host of giant-nosed Whos. The result? Less than half of the classic’s perfect Rotten Tomatoes rating.
Plot Recap
The grouchy green Grinch (Jim Carrey) dwells in semi-peace atop Mount Crumpit when a group of intrusive teens disturbs him from his lair. After making a mischievous trip to Whoville, the Christmas-loathing creature meets little Cindy Lou Who (Taylor Momsen), who grows curious about this ousted former community member living in isolation far above the town. Cindy, feeling sorry for the Grinch, is moved to nominate him as Whoville’s “Holiday Cheermeister” for their upcoming Christmas celebration. Her thoughtful plans soon go awry when egos clash, and the Grinch decides, in his hatred of the holidays and consumerism, to disguise himself as Santa Claus and steal everyone’s Christmas presents for the year.
Jim Carrey starring as Jim Carrey, Universal Pictures
The Charp, the Dull, & the Recommendable
Critics lambast Ron Howard’s How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000) for its poor direction, crude and suggestive humor, and excessive theatricality. As a child/teenager, I loved this film and watched it every Christmas with my grandmother until the past decade or so. Now that I’ve developed my understanding of film and broadened my tastes, does this flashy live-action interpretation of a classic story still hold up?
I offer nearly as strong of a “Yes” now as I would have given back then.
Ron Howard’s film struggles on several points — it’s cluttered, and not every character receives the depth or spotlight they deserve (Cindy Lou’s brothers, for example, exist merely to provoke the Grinch and kickstart the plot). While appreciated and consistent with Dr. Seuss’s concerns, the anti-commercialism message hammers itself home rather heavily and strikes as more cynical, even embittered, than wholesome. And some viewers simply will not connect with Jim Carrey’s Grinch: a relentlessly loud, smart-talking buffoon who spews toxic burps and jokes in equal measure.
The Cheermeister himself (and his loyal canine who rejects the glitter of commercialism), Universal Pictures
But for those who see the Grinch as Jim Carrey’s ideal role — actors boasting his larger-than-life persona and stage presence gel beautifully with fantastical stories like this one — How the Grinch Stole Christmas is incredibly entertaining and clever.
The Grinch remains as amusing to me now as ten years ago, if not more so. His quips span introverted/ill-adjusted person witticisms (“Four o’clock, wallow in self-pity; Four-thirty, stare into the abyss; Five o’clock, solve world hunger, tell no one… Six-thirty, dinner with me — I can’t cancel that again…”), social nudges (“Am I just eating because I’m bored?”; “One man’s toxic sludge is another man’s potpourri”), critical commentary (“Kids today. So desensitized by movies and television”; “BRILLIANT! You reject your own nose because it represents the glitter of commercialism!”), and so much more.
This Grinch has valid reasons to be snarky and oppose the Whos in Whoville. He’s a pariah, driven to self-imposed isolation by his cruel boyhood peers and the sting of perceived rejection from his first crush, Martha May (Christine Baranski). The Grinch never liked Christmas to begin with, but when his classmates mocked his thoughtful homemade gift for Martha — a Christmas-themed gift, at that — and his physical differences, he gave up on belonging. Because of this backstory of a born-outsider-turned-outcast, How the Grinch Stole Christmas highlights social ostracization and loneliness more than any incarnation before or since.
No imposing mountaintop lair is beyond kindness’s reach, Universal Pictures
Sweetly contrasting the Grinch’s abrasiveness is Cindy Lou Who, the warm glue that holds the film’s gentler sentiments together. She’s impossible to dislike and plays off the Grinch’s naughtiness with all the innocence required of a character meant to steer his heart in the right direction (and adjust it to the correct size). Cindy’s youthful skepticism about the meaning of Christmas neatly parallels the Grinch’s distaste for the holiday, but while he has hardened himself against it entirely, she remains open-minded and hopeful.
Cindy’s relentless commitment to doing the right thing — inviting the Grinch to the Whoville celebration and treating him with dignity and Whomanity regardless of social pressure — illustrates the sway that one person’s kindness and empathy can have over another person’s life. Because of her convictions and resistance to Whoville’s anti-Grinch group-think, Cindy’s efforts accomplish their intended end: making the Grinch a part of something again. In a deeper sense, she inspired him to redemption. She even inadvertently gets him “the girl,” Martha!
Shower these tender moments with plentiful jokes and shenanigans, impressive prosthetics/makeup, and excitingly over-the-top set designs, and you get a truly one-of-a-kind film. It’s off-kilter, bizarre, a touch uncouth, and as zany as its star cast member, but it delivers an indelible lesson: Maybe Christmas doesn’t come from a store because kindness is free, and it’s a gift that belongs to everyone… the weird, smelly, and hairy ones, too.
No one is excluded from the gift of redemption, Universal Pictures
Verdict
An imperfect, over-stuffed roast beast of a film, the Jim Carrey-fied Grinch still pulls its sleigh weight in laughs and “Aww” moments. Approached as a comedy (the way it was meant to be viewed), How the Grinch Stole Christmas will leave you lighter than a snowflake and feeling three heart-sizes bigger for the misfits in your life.
