Film Review: Ebenezer

Ebenezer
Director: Ti West
Black Label Media, Motel Mojave, Wattsco, IN.2 Films
In Theaters: 11.13.2026

There’s been a surprising number of new adaptations of beloved literary classics on the big screen this year, including Wuthering Heights and Sense and Sensibility. The driving reason for revisiting these stories over and over is capitalistic rather than artistic in nature, though I, for one, am pretty easygoing about a well-done retelling of a classic tale. While the ad campaign is very much trying to sell us on the idea that Ebenezer is a bold new vision that we’ve never seen before, this tactic may help drive curiosity, but it’s not in the best interest of the movie. 

Ebenezer Scrooge (Johnny Depp, Pirates of the Caribbean, Finding Neverland) is a miserly businessman in Victorian London, whose obsession with wealth has left him bitter, lonely and indifferent to the suffering of others. On Christmas Eve, Scrooge is visited by the ghost of his former business partner, Jacob Marley (Ian McKellen, X-Men, The Lord of the Rings), who warns him of the miserable fate awaiting those who live without compassion. Over the course of the night, three spirits take Scrooge on a journey through his life, revealing the consequences of his selfishness and offering one final chance at redemption.

Ebenezer delivers both as yet another solid interpretation of the ultimate holiday mainstay, and as a vehicle for telling audiences that, love him or hate him, Depp is back and ready to play. What it doesn’t do is give us anything truly new. While director Ti West (X, Pearl, MaxXxine) teases us throughout with what are ultimately safely PG-13 macabre elements, tantalizing his fans with the idea that he’s going to scare the Dickens out of us with a full-on horror film, it never strays too far from the source material. For the most part, that’s not a bad thing. If you really think that a dark and twisted take on the story is for you, there’s always Steven Knight’s oafishly asinine 2019 three-part streaming travesty you can revisit to see why you’re wrong. The darker elements here range from highly effective to wholly unnecessary. A moment where Scrooge remembers the unfortunate fate of his old boss, Mr. Fezziwig, feels like a forced and oddly cynical interlude, and there are moments when the film seems to be unsure as to what it’s trying to say about how justified some of Ebenezer’s distaste for the poor is, with moments that play almost like a Republican rebuttal. Still, overall, it’s a serviceable version that will appeal to people who can’t help but be pulled in by any version of the story, and I suppose to an extent, I’m one of them.

Depp is uncharacteristically both sober and awake for the whole movie, and he’s putting more genuine effort into the performance than we’ve seen from him in decades. That’s not to say he’s up there with great screen Scrooges (It’s frankly hard not to be distracted by watching his character learn, grow and take responsibility for his past misdeeds when it seems that the actor hasn’t the slightest interest in doing so), but it is a reminder that he can be quite a commanding presence. Still, the far more interesting performances come from the spirits. Andrea Riseborough (The Death of Stalin, To Leslie) gives us an interestingly ghoulish rendition of The Ghost of Christmas Past, and Tramell Tillman (Severance, Spider-Man: Brand New Day) is intriguing in an alternative take on The Ghost of Christmas Present. Rupert Grint (the Harry Potter films) makes a sympathetic Bob Cratchit, and Daisy Ridley (Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Young Woman and the Sea) is delightful – if underutilized – as Clara, the wife of Scrooge’s nephew, Fred (Sam Claflin, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, Adrift). Claflin is terrific, and the emphasis on the relationship between Ebenezer and Fred and the deep love that Ebenezer had for his sister, Fan, is the film’s biggest strength. Depp and Claflin pull enough genuine emotion out of the reconciliation that it’s my favorite version of that sequence since the 1984 George C. Scott version. Less compelling is the added time given to Jacob Marley to justify McKellan’s paycheck. It goes without saying that he does good work in the role, but the opportunity to bring new insight to the Scrooge and Marley dynamic is frustratingly wasted.

Ebenezer is really just a glorified television movie that got enough power players behind it that it was made for theaters, but I’m kind of glad that it did. It’s a minor treat for those who just really want to be able to see holiday-themed films on the big screen this time of year, and on that level, it earns a modest recommendation from me. But I’m not going to be adding it to my list of annual “must-watch” traditions. –Patrick Gibbs

Read more of Patrick Gibbs ‘ festive film reviews: 
Film Review: Drummer Boy
Film Review: Wildwood

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