Put a little love in your heart this holiday season with Scrooged, a darkly hilarious take on the re-imagining of the timeless Charles Dickens’ classic A Christmas Carol. Bill Murray plays Frank Cross, the jaded, arrogant, youngest television president in network history, who’s more obsessed with the ratings of his network’s live production of A Christmas Carol, than the core message the special will attempt to convey. Staying true to the core of the Dickens’ message, while getting in some not too subtle jabs at Hollywood (The Solid Gold Dancers as The Scroogettes), Murray is visited by three ghosts on Christmas Eve (Past, Present, Future), preceded by the decaying corpse of his former boss and mentor (John Forsythe), who pleads with him to change his narcissistic ways. Murray’s Christmas Eve becomes a taxi cab ride of a fever dream, that all builds up to rediscovering the love he lost with Claire (Karen Allen). With a score by Danny Elfman, Scrooged is loaded with cameos, including the likes of Robert Mitchum, but it is Bill Murray’s range of emotions, energy, and partly improvised ending, that puts Scrooged in its own unique holiday viewing category.
“With his deadpan, cut-through-it style, Murray is hilarious as the network czar. His deadpan putdowns – his voice pulsating with flat disdain and his open glare shooting darts – are scrumptiously condescending. Despite the juicy, on-the-edge craziness, Murray is able to layer his outrageous histrionics with an inner sensibility, making his ultimate transformation not only believable but Christmas-cheer uplifting.” – Duane Byrge, The Hollywood Reporter
