Jim Carrey is the big reason to see Ron Howard's holiday extravaganza Dr. Seuss' How The Grinch Stole Christmas.
The rubber-faced, elastic-bodied Carrey is not the only reason to catch The Grinch, but he is the main one.
Carrey is at his inventive, explosive, comically subversive best as the cantankerous green meanie, who lives in a cave on the mountain that towers above Whoville.
Carrey turns the screen into a chaotic playground especially when he inhabits it alone.
The scenes in which the Grinch stomps around his lonely cave or sneaks into the homes of the Whos to steal their Christmas cheer are masterful comic moments.
Any other actor but Carrey would have disappeared under all the latex and green paint that Oscar-winning designer Rick Baker has used to bring the beloved character to life.
This Grinch does look like his predecessors from the original Seuss book (1957) and the Chuck Jones' TV cartoon that premiered in 1966 and has been a staple every year.
But the Grinch is still Carrey.
There's always a grin or a leer that gives it all away and his body animates the Grinch as much as any cartoonist. His hand and feet movements are like a dazzling mime act.
The Grinch's dog Max is just as delightful especially in the scene where his master comes home unexpectedly and finds Max dancing up a storm.
The expression of disgust on Carrey's face is equalled only by that twinge of fear in Max's eyes. Call it a fluke or the magic of computers, but Max's expression couldn't be more right or more human.
Michael Corenblith's sets have turned Whoville into a kingdom as magical as Oz. It's a colourful, off-kilter world filled with bizarre contraptions that vaguely suggest rather than imitate things in our own world.
The Whos themselves are rodent like merry makers ruled by a pompous mayor (Jeffrey Tambor) and his toadying assistant (Clint Howard).
Carrey's performance and the magnificent visuals not withstanding, the film suffers from the same ailment as the Grinch himself.
Both their hearts are too small.
Too much of what happens in Whoville is charmless. Screenwriters Jeffrey Price and Peter S. Seaman have concocted a time-worn, tedious back story to explain why the Grinch is so miserable and vengeful.
The Grinch didn't look the other Who children so they teased and excluded him.
Poor little tyke had a crush on Martha May Whovier the most popular girl in Whoville. She grows up to be a selfish, preening fashion fanatic (Christine Baranski).
It's a Beauty and the Beast story which falls embarrassingly flat both in the past and in the present.
This tinkering with the Whos inverts so much of what they were in the original.
In Howard's version it is the Grinch who must teach the Whos the real meaning of Christmas. Granted it is with a great deal of help from the tiny songstress Cindy Lou Who (Taylor Momsen) but they still have as much to learn about commercialism as he.
Howard has imposed a great deal of Keystone Cop style pandemonium on the Whos which will probably distract younger children but annoy adults.
There are moments of true whimsy and joy in Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas but they are never sustained for long enough.
(This film is rated F)
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