Line #7 Film/AChristmasCarol2000


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/scrooge.jpg]]
2
3	''A Christmas Carol'' is a 2000 made-for-TV film adaptation of [[Literature/AChristmasCarol the novel of the same name]], giving it a SettingUpdate to the present day.
4
5	Eddie Scrooge ([[Series/{{Eastenders}} Ross Kemp]]) is a loan shark who works in a poor, inner-city estate, and routinely takes advantage of his less than fortunate clients. Christmas Eve sees him taking a television away from a young mother who has fallen behind on her payments, harassing an elderly couple for the two extra pounds that they owe him, and ignoring the mother of his recently deceased partner, who just wants to know the circumstances behind his untimely death. His beleaguered work colleague Bob Cratchett ([[Series/CoronationStreet Michael Maloney]]) is being kept from spending some much needed time with his sick son, Tim, who is in hospital with cystic fibrosis, by Eddie insisting that they need to work on Christmas.
6
7	But then Eddie is visited by his old partner Jacob Marley ([[Series/CoronationStreet Ray Fearon]]), who warns Eddie that he needs to change his ways, and that he will be visited by three spirits; the ghost of Christmas Past, who appears as Eddie's father (Creator/WarrenMitchell), the ghost of Christmas Present who appears as Marley himself, who claims he's pulling double duty as Christmas Eve is the busiest night of the year for spirits, and the ghost of Christmas Future, who appears to Eddie as a mysterious young boy who looks somewhat familiar.
8
9	One difference between this adaptation and others is that Eddie Scrooge is caught in a GroundhogDayLoop, and repeats the same Christmas Eve until he's finally able to put things right.
10
11	!!This film provides examples of:
12
13	* AgeLift: The ghosts of two homeless youths, introduced by Marley/the Ghost of Christmas Present, parallel the younger Ignorance and Want.
14	* AscendedExtra:
15	** In the original novel, Scrooge is shown two metaphorical children named Ignorance and Want, representing the plight of the poor. In this version, Eddie Scrooge has visions of two actual street children freezing to death in an alley, and one of the components to him achieving his salvation is to find and rescue them before they perish.
16	** Marley ends up pulling double duty as the ghost of Christmas Present.
17	** In the original novella, Belle only appears briefly in the Christmas Past segment, but this adaptation promotes her to a major supporting character.
18	* BlackDudeDiesFirst: Jacob Marley.
19	* ChristmasEveryDay: After each visitation Eddie Scrooge wakes up and it's still Christmas morning. After the first spirit, he's extra nasty just to prove it hadn't had any effect, after the second one he wants to look like he'd changed, so he gives people extravagant presents without finding out what they needed, and after the third one he finally gets it right.
20	* CompositeCharacter: Jacob Marley takes over the role of the Ghost of Christmas Present.
21	* CreepyChild: The final spirit. [[spoiler: Turns out to be Scrooge's son, who will be born after he redeems himself and reconciles with Bella.]]
22	* DeadpanSnarker: Several of the cast, with Eddie and Jacob being the dryest.
23	* DiesDifferentlyInAdaptation: In the book, Jacob Marley died of natural causes seven years before the story started. Here, Marley is shot to death at the beginning.
24	* DramaticallyMissingThePoint: After the second visitation, Eddie tries to help various people through simply shoving money at them, not realising it is the nature of the giving that's important.
25	* DrowningMySorrows: Eddie's widowed father in the Past sequence. Something he's since come to regret as a spirit.
26	* EarnYourHappyEnding: Unsurprising given what story this is adapting, but Eddie has the added bonus of [[spoiler: marrying Bella and raising a son together, the last shot of the film them smiling contently in a family photo.]]
27	* EstablishingCharacterMoment: We first see Eddie all but barging his way into one of his client's flat, unplugging her television set, reminding her that she still owes him money as he carries it out, past her crying children. He then drops it from a great height so that he can't even sell it to make up the money that she owes him, just to make a point.
28	* GroundhogDayLoop: Eddie lives the same Christmas Eve four times, his behavior changing each time, until his final redemption.
29	* HauntedTechnology: When Eddie finds himself [[ItWontTurnOff unable to turn off his telly]], its static suddenly holds, as the Ghost of Christmas Past, Eddie's dad.
30	* HellBentForLeather: Eddie wears a black leather jacket. [[spoiler: [[SignificantWardrobeShift Except at the very end, when he's given it up and started wearing glasses.]]]]
31	* HospitalHottie: Eddie's ex-girlfriend Bella, played by the beautiful Creator/AngelineBall, is a nurse.
32	* ICanChangeMyBeloved: Discussed and subverted. Bella believed this during most of her relationship with Eddie, but gave up and left him. Her friend compares her former attitude to an abused wife's, and begs her not to take Eddie back. When he makes a show of compassion to impress her after the Ghost of Christmas Present sequence, she sees right through him and walks away. It's not until he commits a genuine act of altruism (bringing the children to the hospital without caring if Bella was watching), that she agrees to take him back.
33	* JerkassHasAPoint: Eddie is rightfully pissed at his father for being emotionally distant following his mother's untimely death, as well as neglecting him and his sister to drink.
34	* LoanShark: Eddie Scrooge.
35	* MythologyGag: Like every other version, the spirits do it all in one night. However, in the book (and some adaptations) Marley tells Scrooge to expect each ghost at the same time over the course of three nights. This adaptation plays around this aspect by adding the [[GroundhogDayLoop Groundhog system]] to the plot.
36	* PragmaticVillainy: Bella's friend accuses Eddie of this when he says he's trying to save a dying girl. She was partially right, having thought it was because she owed him money. It was really to show Bella that he had changed.
37	* SchoolyardBullyAllGrownUp: Eddie got his start beating up his classmates and taking their money, blaming his alcoholic father for his inability to provide for him and his sister.
38	* SettingUpdate:
39	** The setting is now a British inner-city estate, in the early 2000s.
40	** Ebenezer is given the more modern name of Edward/Eddie, and Belle is renamed as Bella.
41	* TelevisionPortal: Eddie's father, in the role of the Ghost of Christmas Past, climbs out of the TV to talk to him.

Context Film / AChristmasCarol2000