Jim Carrey is up to all his old tricks (and some nifty new ones) in The Grinch Who Stole Christmas, a live-action film of Dr Seuss's holiday classic. Under a thick carpet of green-dyed yak fur and wonderfully expressive Rick Baker makeup, he commands the title role with equal parts madness, mayhem, pathos and improvisational genius, channelling Grinchness through his own screen persona so smoothly that fans of both Carrey and Dr Seuss will be thoroughly satisfied. Adding to the fun is a perfectly pitched back-story sequence (accompanied by Anthony Hopkins's narration) that explains how the Grinch came to hate Christmas, with a heart "two sizes too small". Ron Howard proves a fine choice for the director's chair with a keen balance of comedy, sentiment and light-hearted Seussian whimsy.
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