Spirited – Film Review

Each Christmas Eve, the Ghost of Christmas Present selects one dark soul to be reformed by a visit from three spirits. But this season, he picked the wrong Scrooge. Clint Briggs turns the tables on his ghostly host until Present finds himself reexamining his own past, present and future.

Few things are able to put a bigger smile on my face than watching a legitimately excellent Christmas movie. Of course, just like a ton of people out there, every holiday season I have a number of films that I watch as a tradition, including Home Alone and National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation.

Well, folks, I think I might have to add another movie to my yearly holiday watchlist. Sean Anders‘ Spirited is a tremendously cheery, heartwarming, and whimsical Christmas-themed musical comedy film that serves as a modern retelling of the classic Charles Dickens novella A Christmas Carol.

While there are some elements that don’t work (some dialogue scattered throughout, mostly), Spirited is one of the most purely fun movies I’ve seen so far this year. Obviously, since this is a retelling, you know how the story is going to end, but screenwriters Sean Anders and John Morris still manage to find clever ways to shake a ton of things up.

The film consistently throws a ton of surprises at the viewer, including some scenes that seemed shockingly dark and some moments that were so emotionally gripping that I forgot that I was watching a goofy holiday movie for a couple of moments. When you really think about it, the film really has it all in terms of its range of emotions.

And if you were to tell me that Will Ferrell and Ryan Reynolds would ever have terrific chemistry in a movie, I would’ve laughed at you and called you strange. However, that’s exactly what kind of chemistry they have here as Present and Clint Briggs, respectively.

This is an incredibly fun duo to watch on screen, and I, for one, would love to see even more movies with these two as the leads because they work unbelievably well together. A lot of the film’s comedy centers around the relationship that the two share throughout the course of the story, and it’s always wonderful.

Since this is a musical, you’re probably wondering how the music is. It’s fantastic. There are certainly quite a number of songs from this film that I’ll be adding to my already massive Christmas playlist, including “Good Afternoon,” “Unredeemable,” and “Bringin’ Back Christmas.”

There’s a whole bunch of things to love about Spirited. If you’re in the mood for an incredibly optimistic, heartwarming, emotional, and downright hilarious Christmas-themed musical comedy, then you really don’t need to look any further. It’s a movie you’ll find yourself wanting to watch every holiday season, too.