Grinch, The Review

Towering above the community of Whoville is Mt. Crumpit where The Grinch lives a solitary life, accompanied only by his dog, Max. Ever since his humiliating childhood, The Grinch has hated the Whos and the Christmas they so strenuously celebrate; and when young Cindy Lou Who attempts to re-integrate him into Who society, he responds by stealing all the Christmas presents, trees and fairylights from the Who houses... I always enjoyed the books of Dr. Seuss, including How The Grinch Stole Christmas, and Ron Howard`s film is a pretty decent adaptation of the story, raised above the level of average by the performance of Jim Carrey, whose misanthropic Grinch is a great anti-Christmas campaigner in the tradition of Scrooge. Rick Baker`s makeup is superb, the community of Whoville, with its heightened, Christmas card reality, is amusingly depicted, and the book`s condemnation of the over-commercialisation of Christmas, plus its plea for an understanding of people who are `different`, come over clearly. Taylor Momsen`s moppety Cindy Lou is a bit too saccharine, especially when she sings, which thankfully isn`t often. But the film`s stolen by Carrey and Kelley, the dog who plays Max; some people are saying Carrey makes the character too dark, similar criticisms to those levelled against Babe, Pig In The City - but surely most fairy tales were dark - look at the works of Grimm, A Christmas Carol, films like Snow White and The Wizard Of Oz. The Grinch is a pretty good Christmas entertainment..