How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000)
★★½ — How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000)
Jim Carrey beneath a mountain of green prosthetics, snarling and cackling and somehow, impossibly, making you feel a twinge of sympathy for a creature who wants to ruin Christmas. That's the most remarkable thing about this film, and honestly, it might be the only truly remarkable thing about it.
Carrey is extraordinary here. I don't use that word lightly. The physicality alone is staggering: the contorted limbs, the rubbery facial expressions pushing through all that latex, the way he bounces between cruel mockery and something genuinely wounded underneath. He commits so completely that you forget there's a human being in there. It's the kind of performance that carries a film on its back, and that's exactly what he has to do, because without him, this thing would collapse under its own weight. If you want to see what Carrey can do when he's truly let off the leash, I'd point you toward The Mask for a similar kind of manic genius, or the more restrained but equally impressive The Truman Show (1998) for proof that he's never just been a one-trick merchant.
The problem is everything surrounding him. Whoville, as realised here, is an assault on the senses. Spiralling towers, candy-coloured nonsense architecture, bells and tinsel and garish colour schemes piled on top of each other until the whole thing starts to feel less like a festive backdrop and more like a headache. I understand the ambition. Dr. Seuss's world is inherently strange and exaggerated, and there's clearly a genuine attempt here to bring that strangeness to life in three dimensions. But there's a difference between whimsical and overwhelming, and this film doesn't always know where that line is.
Ron Howard directs with a maximalist approach that never really settles. The pacing goes soft in the middle, padded out with new subplots that weren't in the original story and slapstick set-pieces that get a bit repetitive. It's the classic adaptation trap: taking something lean and elegant and assuming that more is more. The original animated short is barely half an hour long, and it doesn't need to be anything else. This version stretches and stretches, and you feel every extra minute.
The tone is uneven, too. One moment it's playing sweet and sentimental, the next it tips over into something almost frantic and shrill. For young kids, that probably doesn't matter much. The Grinch is a brilliant character to watch: easy to root against, easy to eventually root for, and Carrey gives him enough genuine pathos that the redemption arc doesn't feel entirely hollow. But for adults sitting alongside those kids on the sofa, there are long stretches where patience is required.
It's not a bad film. I want to be fair about that. The message is solid, the big musical moments have a kind of daft charm, and Carrey's performance is genuinely worth your time. It checks the boxes a Christmas film needs to check. But it never transcends those boxes. It never finds the warmth or the simplicity that makes a holiday film something you genuinely look forward to revisiting each year. It's the kind of thing that's just sort of there, on in the background, doing its job without any particular grace.
Two and a half stars. Perfectly serviceable if you've got kids to entertain and Carrey's energy is enough to keep you going. Just don't expect the magic to last much beyond Boxing Day.
Rating: ★★½ | Year: 2000 | Watched: 2026-04-20
Where to watch
Watch in the UK
Rent: Apple TV Store · Rakuten TV · Amazon Video · Google Play Movies
Buy: Apple TV Store · Rakuten TV · Amazon Video · Google Play Movies
Physical: Amazon UK · Zavvi
Watch in the US
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Buy: Amazon Video · Apple TV Store · Google Play Movies · YouTube
Physical: Amazon US
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Related on Movies With Macca
More from Ron Howard: Inferno (2016) · Angels & Demons (2009) · The Da Vinci Code (2006) · A Beautiful Mind (2001)
More with Jim Carrey: Ace Ventura: Pet Detective (1994) · Yes Man (2008) · The Mask (1994) · The Truman Show (1998)
More from Germany: Lessons of Darkness (1992) · Cemetery Man (1994) · The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014) · Resident Evil: Retribution (2012)
More from the 2000s: Kirikou and the Wild Beasts (2005) · Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004) · Daredevil (2003) · Apocalypto (2006)
More family: Alice in Wonderland (1951) · Wonder (2017) · Kirikou and the Wild Beasts (2005) · Anastasia (1997)
More comedy: The Eagle (1925) · The General (1926) · Americana (2023) · The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! (1988)
