I enjoy Christmas and everything that comes with it, I love the food, the lights, Christmas jumpers – the lot. What I don’t like is the build up to Christmas, I avoid my doing my Christmas shopping right to the last minute. I don’t like it when people put their Christmas decorations up in November, or the fact that everything you buy is covered in glitter and tinsel. It’s for these reasons that that when it comes to Christmas films THE GRINCH embodies the festive time for me and this is the reason why I watch THE GRINCH on repeat as soon as it’s December.
Set within a snowflake, is the town of Whoville. The inhabitants are preparing for Christmas and with each minute that goes by the rush and panic to cook a banquet of food, put on the best display of lights and buy everyone presents intensifies. Away from Whoville is the bad tempered and Christmas loathing Grinch lives on the mountain and plans to ruin Christmas for everyone.
Back in Whoville, the Grinch (played by the excellent Jim Carrey) is like a mythological creature, they know he’s there, but they don’t dare speak his name. Everyone’s busy buying presents, Ron Howard’s camera doesn’t stay still as it’s pushed through the busy streets.
The narrator (Antony Hopkins) ironically states that ‘there is no place like Whoville’, but you can’t help and see some similarities with the British high street and frenzied shopping scenes. Amongst all the chaos is Cindy Lou (Taylor Momsen), a little girl who wonders if the Grinch really is that evil and is having some trouble getting into the Christmas spirit herself.
Cindy Lou meets the Grinch as he’s causing chaos in the post office, knowing full well this was cause mayhem and upset on Christmas day, you can’t help but enjoy the trouble he causes.  The Grinch tries his very best at being the menacing villain the towns people make him out to be, but he doesn’t fool Cindy, who laughs and giggles as he wraps her up in Christmas paper.
The green, the fur, the yellow teeth and the distorted facial expressions, Jim Carey was made for this role, his performance is a masterpiece. Juggling between spouts of anger as he rages against the Who’s and their shallow meaning of Christmas, but also talks about his own miserable life. There’s one scene where he reads from his diary, ‘5:30, jazzercise; 6:30, dinner with me – I can’t cancel that again; 7:00 wrestle with my self-loathing’. His performance is filled with wit and honesty that you can’t help but love the Grinch.
THE GRINCH captures the love hate relationship people have with Christmas. It makes fun of the chaos, the people and the lengths they go to preparing for the day and it’s funny because we’ve all been there. But it also wouldn’t be a Christmas film if it didn’t have some degree of cheesiness tied in with it – which it does.
My favourite thing about THE GRINCH is that underneath the shallowness and aesthetics of Christmas time, by stealing the presents from the Who’s of Whoville, the Grinch accidently reveals the true meaning of Christmas, HELP ME… I’m FEELING.
Verdict
Is THE GRINCH one of your favourite Christmas movies? If not, which one is? Let us know what you think in the comment box below or tweet us @filmandtvnow!
