Ebenezer

You get the feeling that Johnny Depp needs another cinematic adaptation of A Christmas Carol more than the public does. After all, it’s not difficult to find parallels between the title character in Ebenezer and the star himself.

However, after almost a decade out of the spotlight, Depp’s comeback vehicle never really validates its necessity as a reinterpretation of Charles Dickens’ classic holiday tale of reckoning and redemption.

Stylish and reverent, the differences from prior versions are more cursory than substantial in this somewhat sluggish update from director Ti West (Pearl), which leans into the dark, horror-infused influences from the source material.

The setup is familiar, with Ebenezer Scrooge as the notoriously cantankerous capitalist in Victorian London, where he shares a cramped lending office with equally misanthropic miser Jacob Marley (Ian McKellen) before he keels over.

Scrooge, of course, rejects giving to charity and scoffs at the notion that Christmas requires a day off for hard-working clerk Bob Cratchit (Rupert Grint) to spend with family. “Good cheer does not balance the ledger,” he growls.

Likewise, he rejects an annual dinner invitation from his nephew (Sam Claflin) and his wife (Daisy Ridley), the latter of which would rather not deal with him anyway.

Alone over Christmas Eve, he’s visited by Marley’s spirit, and eventually three more specters — the ghosts of Christmas past (Andrea Riseborough), present (Tramell Tillman), and future.

Their all-night odyssey forces to confront his tragic and troubled past, and eventually his own mortality, while opening the door for a second chance.

Masked in facial prosthetics, Depp digs beneath Scrooge’s perpetual scowl and icy demeanor in portraying a broken man burdened by grief and guilt who’s reluctant to open his heart and his pocketbook.

The film’s striking visuals capture the pervasive bleakness and socioeconomic despair in its wintry setting. The supernatural effects are vivid and appropriately unsettling, with the haunting imagery gradually intensifying through each segment.

The lessons of generosity and kindness still resonate, even if they’re delivered with the customary lack of subtlety and surprise by rookie screenwriter Nathaniel Halpern.

Most will already know the narrative destination, and the journey is only intermittently captivating. Ebenezer isn’t as stale as seasonal fruitcake, but it’s hardly a gift, either.

Rated PG-13, 115 minutes.