Spirited (2022)
Directed by Sean Anders
Written by Sean Anders, John Morris
Starring Will Ferrell, Ryan Reynolds, Octavia Spencer, Sunita Mani, Tracy Morgan
Release Date November 11th, 2022 (Apple TV)
Published November 11th, 2022
Imagine that the three ghosts that visit Ebenezer Scrooge in A Christmas Carol, are part of an elaborate business that specializes into scaring bad people into good people, all while singing very on the nose show tunes, and you have the movie Spirited starring Will Ferrell and Ryan Reynolds. This musical comedy posits that Ebenezer Scrooge (Will Ferrell) became the Ghost of Christmas Present after his life ended. Now, Scrooge along with his old pal Marley (Patrick Page), the Ghost of Christmas Past (Sunita Mani), and the Ghost of Christmas Future (Tracy Morgan), works to redeem those in needing redemption.
For their latest case, the Ghosts and Marley are targeting a big fish, a so-called 'unredeemable' human being named Clint Briggs (Ryan Reynolds). Briggs is a bad guy. We meet him as he is making a presentation to owners of Christmas Tree Lots and he is encouraging them to demonize those that don't use real Christmas trees as hating Christmas. Briggs' job is all about creating chaos and division in order to sell narratives that protect brands and rich elite jerks. Marley is convinced that Briggs cannot be saved. Scrooge however, sees some of himself in Briggs and emotionally links his own redemption story to that of this awful jerk.
From here we watch as Scrooge and company stage the life of Clint Briggs. They recreate his childhood home and bring his late sister to life. Clint has a lot of guilt and complicated feelings about his late sister, a saint who took care of him as a kid while their mom was a comical jerk. When the sister dies, Clint refused to take on her daughter, instead leaving the daughter to stay with his loving but bumbling younger brother, Owen (Joe Tippett). Naturally, Scrooge will use this moment to tug on Clint's heart strings but as happens throughout Spirited, Clint is not an easy nut to crack.
For his part, Clint sets about sewing chaos in the meticulous plot to redeem him. He starts by seducing the Ghost of Christmas Past and then by twisting Ferrell's Ghost of Christmas Present/Scrooge into knots with endless questions about his past, why what he does is necessary and why Clint himself is happy to be seen as Unredeemable. Of course, we all know where this is headed. There is no surprise o be found in Spirited and thus the movie has to rely on gags, comical songs, and the strength of the cast to sell this overly complicated and yet predictable story.
Spirited kind of works. This is undoubtedly Will Ferrell's best performance since 2010's The Other Guys, the last time he earned really big laughs on screen. In the last decade, Ferrell has made some of the worst movies going and thus I was happy to be able to laugh with him again. I've missed the Will Ferrell that wasn't a desperate, flailing, sweaty mess. His Scrooge is a strong combination of his Elf persona with his dramatic, adult performances in Stranger Than Fiction and Everything Must Go. The wistfulness and longing in this character give a genuine quality to his energetic, desperate for the joke side and that goes a long way toward making the performance tolerable and even entertaining.
Ryan Reynolds sparks well with Ferrell as Scrooge. Reynolds' playful approach to being a massive jerk provides a strong arc for the character, even as it is a supremely predictable arc. Reynolds is funny, charming, angry, and rounds into genuine kindness in a real and enjoyable fashion. Strange as it seems for such a broad comedy, it's among the most genuine and enjoyable performances from Reynolds in some time. Somehow, getting to sing has enlivened Reynolds after several recent rather bored performances.
Click here for my full length review at Geeks.Media.
