HOW THE GRINCH STOLE CHRISTMAS (2000) * With inherent repulsiveness as his long suit, there really aren't many roles that Jim Carrey is fit to play. The Grinch would seem to be one. So what does Ron Howard do? He dilutes Dr. Seuss' literary masterpiece with a bunch of substandard crap in an effort to make the Grinch a sympathetic figure. Doesn't work-only the scene where the mayor and Little Cindy Lou Who are arguing about what The Book of Who says are good at all, and it's hopelessly out of place anyway. With Howard trying to make us feel sorry for the Grinch, even when he's an asshole, the film never had a chance, but that's not the surprising part. The surprising part is how awful Anthony Hopkins' narration is. Not that he's drunk and stumbles over words or anything, that would have been (however slightly) preferable. Hopkins is a fine choice of narrator for Shakespeare or Chaucer or some stiff like that, but he doesn't work at all for Seuss. You need someone whose voice drips pathos and dances, someone individualistic and decadent and American. Kris Kristofferson would have been my choice. It doesn't even have to be someone American, though-Linton Kwesi Johnson would have been brilliant. Just not Hopkins or Maurice Evans. That all being what it is, they waste a winsome performance by Taylor Momsen as Little Cindy Lou Who, who transcends the film despite all of the ballast and bad hair-dos. I also like the little Whoville cars.
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