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Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas

© James C. Hess

Jim Carrey first gained major recognition on the Fox televison program "In Living Color". Then he gained more prominence by way of his idiotic, sophomoric, and just-plain stupid/silly work on the silver screen: "Ace Ventura" and "Dumb and Dumber".

And then, just when it seemed his fifteen minutes of fame was spent, just when it seemed he had reached his range as an actor, he reinvented himself as a dramatic actor the likes of Jimmy Stewart and Spencer Tracy with his performance in "The Truman Show".

Yes, there have been one or two duds along the way--"The Cable Guy", for one--but despite these failings, these missteps, Jim Carrey has made a certain truth clear: The man can act.

And the man is human.

And to be human is to err.

Which may, on one level, go to explain his role in "Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas".

The Grinch, for those who don't know the story, is a character who stole Christmas gifts. He did so because he was bitter. He was bitter because as a child he was picked on and made fun of for being green and rather hairy.

Almost everyone can appreciate this situation. Because of this commonality, then, how the live action version of this tale should have be done is apparent.

Or is it?

Not for director Ron Howard, it seems.

For reasons not known, instead of making a fun, lively movie Ron Howard made a dark, dank, eerie, uncomfortable, unsettling movie hewn from the dysfunctional genre of the aforementioned "The Cable Guy".

Yes, there is a happy ending. Yes, there is a undeniably cute little girl, Cindy Lou Who (Taylor Momsen), who effectively saves the Grinch from himself by way of childish innocence.

But. . .

Overall "Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas" isn't what it could be. What it should be.

Much of the reason for this is because of Jim Carrey, who plays the Grinch. He snarls, snorts, sneers, grimaces, growls, taunts, howls. He leaps, tumbles, flies through the air, gets stuck in a variety of places, and gets blown up like the cartoon character Jim Carrey the actor mostly is.

But he doesn't act like the actor Jim Carrey is capable of doing.

And the reason for this is because Jim Carrey is not Jim Carrey.

He is the Grinch. Kermit the Frog on some serious steroids.

Which isn't funny. At all.

The Grinch, according to Dr. Seuss, is a deviant of sorts. Understandably so when one considers what he had to endure in his childhood. But according to the good doctor the Grinch, despite this, remains, at his basic core, a good sort who just needs a little coaxing to reveal this person.