A movie about Christmas, and about the way we face it.
For starters, I must clarify that I have never seen any other material about Grinch, much less the original book where this character was created. I will judge this movie for what it is, without weaves comparisons. He is not my Christmas favorite, never was, I even think it is a little scary for smaller children, given the mischiefs and attitude of Grinch. But it has a good story, good dialogues and other qualities.
What is Christmas? Many will say that's the family or children's party. I accept, but in fact, it is the symbolic date that the Catholic Church marks the birth of Jesus. No one knows when Jesus was born, but the Church chose the date for convenience, coinciding the feast with an older pagan celebration, Saturnalia. For centuries, Christmas was just a festive day when Catholics confessed themselves, listened to Mass and ate fish (the consumption of meat and candy is forbidden on holy days, even though the elites did, by paying cash indulgences... in my country it's still tradition to eat codfish in Christmas Eve). The "invention" of modern Christmas happened in the late nineteenth century, with capitalism, and the creation of toy industries and food industries that allowed the middle classes a more interesting supper and the gift for children, offered to them by Baby Jesus and, later, for the invented character of Father Natal (in Spain, this exchange of gifts is only made on the day of kings in January, what I think makes full sense). This is how, in England, Germany and the US, Christmas became more commercial, more focused on consuming, gift distribution and conviviality, and the religious aspect was putted in the background.
This movie, released in the 1980s, shows us an evil character who learned to see Christmas as futile due to this obsession with toys, gifts and food. He does not know how to express this in the best way, he's unaware that behind this is a greater meaning, but what Grinch rejects is precisely this "commercial Christmas." And I couldn't agree more with him… So, through his mischiefs, Grinch will help people to rediscover the meaning of Christmas, even if this is not his real purpose. This is the beauty of this story, for me: Grinch will help the Whoos while they will help him to understand that Christmas is more than gifts or food.
Directed by Ron Howard, a director whose credits do not require presentations, the film is very well done and was a gigantic box office hit and critical success. It became a Christmas classic, although today it is not so popular. With no dead moments, it has an excellent pace, it does not lengthen too much, it is not tiring, and the script does what it needs, although with various flaws and several jokes that are not working. I liked, in particular, the narrator's interventions and rhymes, something that reinforces the idea that this is a children's story. Cinematography is amazing, with vibrant and flashy colors, and the soundtrack, not being memorable, has good qualities.
Jim Carrey did very well in accepting the difficult task of bringing Grinch to life. I can only imagine how boring it was for him to be subject to that make-up routine every day, but it was totally worth the time and sacrifice: he's unrecognizable and absolutely credible and authentic under that thing, and has a natural gift to model the voice as he wants and suits to the character. Sir Anthony Hopkins also deserves praise for his participation, having lent his voice to the narrator. The rest does a positive job, but merely supports Carrey in its task of building the movie around it.