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efilmcritic.com - : Bill Murray is hysterically funny (and admittedly spectacular) as Frank Cross, the president of a television network in the 1988 comedy Scrooged. Despite uncreative writing and subtle-as-a-jackhammer direction, Murray manages to cut quite the profound cinematic figure of Cross, a detestable, egotistical man who’s about as pleasant to be around as a tax auditor in December. Having gotten near the top of his profession at a relatively young age, Frank has wasted no time in openly and profanely professing his megalomania to his subordinates. He loves demeaning people – it stokes the internal fire that helps fuel a weak inner superiority complex – and does so with such ferocious élan that it’s no wonder he’s all but a literal terror to come in contact with. Yet, in a lot of ways, he’s irresistible to movie audiences, because Murray plays him with such utter and complete conviction, with so many subtle nuances of irony, that you find yourself responding to him on numerous emotional levels; he makes for the darndest, most despicably detestable Everyman ever to grace a saccharine, feel-good cinematic Christmas fable. When Cross mercilessly fires an employee on Christmas Eve, the only thing that makes him tingle with joy more is having his secretary call down to Accounting to stop the man's bonus; and a bit later, when in a rush to get to a humanitarian awards ceremony, he’s all but ecstatic over swindling a little old lady out of her cab on a cold night -- he even points up his accomplishment by flipping her the finger as the cab departs. Murray’s at the top of his game – he clues you into the humaneness lurking somewhere deep down inside this human monstrosity, minus the insufferable mawkishness that a genuinely naive actor might soil the proceedings with – and he provides the film with a lot more panache than the filmmakers know what to do with. more...
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Critic Reviews
