Patrick Stewart: 5 Awesome Performances And 5 That Sucked

3. Ebenezer Scrooge - A Christmas Carol (1999)

On the very slim chance that you've never heard of it, A Christmas Carol is based on Dickens' classic story of the miser Ebenezer Scrooge, a man with no time for charity or Christmas. On Christmas Eve, having been persuaded to reluctantly shut up shop, he is visited by the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Future, who lead him through time in an effort to make him change his ways. The filmmakers on this version wanted to recapture the grim atmosphere of the Sim version, in contrast to the more consciously cheery ones that had followed it.

While it's very hard to get A Christmas Carol wrong, it's very easy to direct it without any energy, and this production has very little going for it. Director David Jones' stage background is all-too-obvious, with his pedestrian angles and lighting decisions failing to lift the material. The most curious thing about it, however, is Stewart's performance: having won acclaim for playing the part on stage in London and on Broadway, he seems confused or lost in the material. Whether through poor direction or a genuine lapse in technique, this is one Scrooge you can skip.