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Johnny Depp is hoping to make a big comeback (with a big pay cut) with Ebenezer, which hits the 2026 movie schedule this weekend. It’s a classic Depp part, buried under makeup and disappearing into the character (and I mean that in a great way). Reviews are starting to emerge, and they are not going to bring a lot of Christmas cheer to anyone rooting for the comeback. In fact, he’s being unfavorably compared to Muppets. Ouch.
In a review for Consequence, Liz Shannon Miller has perhaps the harshest take, calling the adaptation of Charles Dickens’ classic A Christmas Carol “Bullshit” and making a comparison to the beloved version starring the Muppets. She writes:
It’s Johnny Depp’s prosthetics-enhanced return to movie stardom — or at least that’s what Paramount is hoping. Too bad Depp’s performance is a sad joke compared to, say, the great Michael Caine’s definitive take on the role; Caine was performing opposite Muppets, but Depp’s doing his best to act like one.
Inevitably, Depp is going to be compared to the many other Scrooges over the years, as the role has been played many times in Hollywood history. In his review for The Independent, Louis Chilton writes:
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There have, at this point, been a multitude of Christmas Carols on screen, and what distinguishes the great ones is usually the potency of Scrooge himself – whether that’s Alastair Sim back in 1951 or a Muppet-swaddled Michael Caine in the Nineties. A great Scrooge may well have lifted Ebenezer into the canon of lasting Christmas Carol adaptations; Depp’s unmediated shtick instead cheapens it.
Even when they aren’t comparing him to the ghosts of Scrooge’s past, the early reviews of Depp’s performance are pretty harsh. A review at The Reveal states:
Depp’s nearly unrecognizable beneath the prosthetics, and it often seems as if he’s trying to mug his way out from under them. He looks like a wax museum grotesque and barks and scowls his way through the film as if he knew he’d be competing with a Godzilla movie the next theater over.
It’s a recurring theme in the reviews, which often praise the visuals in the movie and the supporting cast, which includes Sir Ian McKellen, Tramell Tillman, Rupert Grint, Sam Claflin, and Daisy Ridley, but find Depp uninspiring. Brandon Yu at The New York Times writes:
At his worst, Depp appears as if he is in a Scrooge costume in a Christmas-season ad campaign for Verizon. At his best, he is competent.
Alison Willmore at Vuture calls Depp “the worst part of Ebenezer,” and Taylor Williams at Slant says there is a “palpable desperation to his phoned-in whimsy.”
The movie is currently sitting around the 50% fresh mark on Rotten Tomatoes, so not everyone thinks it’s as bad as some of the reviews. Some even praise Depp’s performance. Helen O’Hara at Empire, for example, writes:
Depp delivers, really fitting the role as he leans into his prosthetics, sneering for all he’s worth and bah-ing with the best of them.
Pete Hammond at Deadline also liked the performance by Depp in the Ti West-directed horror-ish movie, saying:
To say it is a perfect fit for Depp would be an understatement as he finds his own unique way into the role, but in a bit of a twist manages to unearth more humanity in Ebenezer Scrooge than previous versions that saved all that for the inevitable happy ending.
Still, the praise of Depp as the iconic Ebenezer Scrooge is buried next to the flood of reviews that clearly feel that this is not Depp at his best. While West’s direction is also praised by some, that too is tempered by seemingly frustrated film critics who can’t get past Depp’s scenery-chewing.
Reviewers have often been critical of Depp, especially when he takes on roles like this, and this could be another Alice in Wonderland, which critics dismissed, but the movie-going public loved to the tune of more than a billion dollars at the box office. Or it could be another Alice Through the Looking Glass, which everyone kind of hated. Will it be a Merry Christmas to all or Bah Humbug? Time will tell.