Johnny Depp’s Return Leaves Critics Cold in Early ‘Ebenezer’ Reviews

Well, that’s stupidity.

That of Johnny Depp Ebenezer marks his first major studio film since his controversial libel trial with ex-wife Amber Heard, and the film has so far failed to fill critics with Christmas cheer.

Charles Dickens’ latest adaptation A Christmas Carolled by X Filmmaker Ti West currently holds a 50 percent approval rating from critics on Rotten Tomatoes with 70+ reviews. Most positive reviews gave it a rating of around 6 out of 10, meaning the vast majority of critics left the film disappointed. Ebenezer also received a less than stellar score of 47/100 on aggregator site Metacritic.

David Ehrlich of IndieWire called Depp’s performance “an advent calendar of empty affectations with no soul to anchor them, every shot full of face and devoid of feeling… His unsavory side off-screen certainly doesn’t help, but there’s a more immediate problem when the lights go out, one that makes him unique among Hollywood’s corrupt lineup of mega-star actors: he seems to have become very bad as a as an actor.”

ConsequenceLiz Shannon Miller of , felt that Depp’s version of Scrooge paled in comparison to A Muppets Christmas Carol. “Too bad Depp’s performance is a sad joke compared to, say, the great Michael Caine’s definitive version of the role; Caine was opposite the Muppets, but Depp does his best to act as such,” she wrote. Miller also suggested that Depp “completely fails to capture Ebenezer’s transition to kindness; it’s just the same performance, with a little more awkwardness in the mix.

Amelia Emberwing of TheWrap did not like Nathaniel Halpern’s script for the film. “Its attempts at humor are just whiffs, making you laugh at the film in moments that are meant to be played seriously,” she wrote. “But its greatest sin is relying on second-screen dialogue that has no confidence that its audience will look up from their phones to see what’s happening on screen.”

Alison Wilmore of Vulture noted that the film as a whole is “pretty good”, aside from its lead actor’s performance. “Depp also does a tedious variation on the mugging that has become his primary acting approach since the role of Captain Jack Sparrow catapulted him to the Disney franchise level of fame — a vaguely comedic, scenery-chewing mode that doesn’t fit with the rest of the film,” she wrote. “While the rest of Ebenezer leans towards the horror aspect of Charles Dickens’ short story, Depp seems to think he is starring in a family comedy.

Similarly, Matt Zoller-Seitz of RogerEbert.com said the film was “skillfully made” with a “retro-classic style”. However, he believes that “Depp’s standard Marlon-Brando-in-latex bag of tricks is entirely wrong for a work of such delicacy, almost like a mischievous sabotage of a film that does not deserve such disrespect.”

On the more positive side of the spectrum, Variety‘s Guy Lodge wrote that Depp “makes a perfectly solid Scrooge, according to the book – with occasional moments of mature inspiration in his line readings”, but also noted that the film is “too scary for many children and too old hat for many adults”.

And THRFrank Scheck of Frank Scheck wrote that while the film “doesn’t break any new ground, aside from being perhaps the first version of the story that isn’t really suitable for young children, it fulfills its apparent goal of restoring the actor to star status.” Scheck adds that Depp’s “charisma and star power eventually comes through.”

Get your daily dose of entertainment news, celebrity updates and what to watch with our EW Dispatch Newsletter.

Ebenezer also stars Ian McKellen, Andrea Riseborough, Tramell Tillman, Rupert Grint, Sam Claflin and Daisy Ridley. The film is now showing in theaters.