Ebbie
| Ebbie | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | George Kaczender |
| Produced by | Jean Abounader Jayme Pfahl |
| Written by | Paul Redford Ed Redlich |
| Starring | Susan Lucci Wendy Crewson Ron Lea Molly Parker |
| Music by | Lawrence Shragge |
| Editing by | Roger Mattiussi |
| Release date(s) | 4 December 1995 (USA) |
| Running time | 96 minutes |
| Language | English |
Ebbie or Miracle at Christmas: Ebbie's Story is a 1995 TV movie directed by George Kaczender, written by Ed Redlich, and starring Susan Lucci in the title role. It is a gender-reversed retelling of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, with a grouchy female character in place of the miserly Ebenezer Scrooge.
[edit] Plot
The title character is businesswoman Elizabeth "Ebbie" Scrooge, played by Lucci. Ebbie has never appreciated Christmas, and has been rotten to the holidays. She doesn't give to the needy, doesn't care about her employees at Dobson's (the store she owns), and most of all, she works on Christmas. One night, the ghost of her partner, Jake Marley (counterpart to Dickens' Jacob Marley character, played here by Jeffrey DeMunn), haunts her. She is soon brought to him and the Ghosts of Christmas Past (Jennifer Clement and Nicole Parker) show her the Christmases she has celebrated. They take her to a very significant Christmas when her sister Francine (Molly Parker) died after nearly miscarrying her niece due to toxemia of pregnancy (Francine would have survived had Ebbie not left her alone to attend a party). It is also the Christmas she met her soon-to-be boyfriend Paul (Ron Lea). They show her many other Christmases, including another grim one when Paul leaves her for caring more about her job than them as a couple, when she and Marley take over Dobson's, and finally, the previous year, when Jake Marley died.
The Ghost of Christmas Present (Lorena Gale) shows her the life of her co-worker, Roberta Cratchet (Wendy Crewson), and her son, Tiny Tim (Taran Noah Smith). Next, she sees the party that she is invited to every year by her niece (also Molly Parker), but has always declined; the guests toast Ebbie, but her niece does not drink to her. She sees Paul and his wife, and homeless children she has shunned, while the ghost shoves all of her bad words back at her. Then, the Ghost of Christmas Future shows her many terrible futures, including one where Tiny Tim dies, one where Dobson's is shut down, and one where she herself dies and nobody comes to see her. After the experience, Ebbie becomes a better person. She is shown the next morning, where she bids good morning to the doorman, and he is surprised. She also orders a large turkey for the Cratchets, donates money for the poor children, buys a coat for a homeless woman (Elan Ross Gibson) and offers her a job, gives Rita a raise, gives a better job to Roberta, and finally attends the party her niece has been inviting her to, where she learns that the reason her niece didn't drink the toast to Ebbie is because she's pregnant. The movie ends with Ebbie at the Cratchets' house, eating dinner with them.
[edit] Sources
- Ebbie at the Internet Movie Database
