Genie (2023)

Richard Curtis wrote Bernard and the Genie in 1991 because he wanted something cheerful after watching an Agatha Christie adaptation that left his family depressed. The impulse was good. The result, a cult British TV movie starring Lenny Henry and a young Alan Cumming, was warm and funny and unpretentious. Thirty-two years later, Curtis remade it for Peacock, swapped the genie's gender, moved the setting to New York, and cast Melissa McCarthy. The impulse, again, was reasonable. The result is considerably less so.

Genie (2023) follows Bernard (Paapa Essiedu), a quietly desperate employee at a Manhattan auction house who spends so much time chasing his narcissistic boss Flaxman (Marc Maron) that he misses his daughter Eve's eighth birthday. His wife, Flora (Denee Benton), takes Eve and leaves. Bernard comes home to find a lamp, rubs it out of distraction, and gets Eve (Melissa McCarthy), a 2,000-year-old genie who last walked the earth somewhere around ancient Persia and has a lot of catching up to do.

What Melissa McCarthy Actually Brings to the Role

The best version of this movie exists in McCarthy's physical performance. She plays Eve's confusion about the modern world with a specific quality: not wide-eyed tourist wonder, but the alertness of someone trying very hard to understand rules that seem arbitrary and stupid. Her reaction to a microwave, to ride-share apps, to Tom Cruise, is genuinely funny. Several of her best lines were improvised on set, and you can often tell because they have a looseness that the scripted material lacks.

Paapa Essiedu does quiet desperation well. He is a British actor best known for stage work and for the TV series I May Destroy You, and he brings enough specificity to Bernard that you believe his paralysis. His chemistry with McCarthy works in the scenes where the film stops trying to be a vehicle and just lets them talk.

Alan Cumming plays Flaxman, the villain boss. He played Bernard in the 1991 original. This is either a fun piece of casting or an ironic commentary on how power works in the entertainment industry, depending on how generous you're feeling.

The Genie Movie's Actual Problem: The Script

Curtis wrote both versions. The 1991 film ran 70 minutes and didn't overstay its welcome. The 2023 remake runs 100 minutes and does. The extra half-hour doesn't add depth. It adds set pieces that feel like they were conceived to pad a runtime: a sequence where Eve causes chaos at the auction house, a montage of Christmas goodwill, a subplot involving Luis Guzman that gets introduced and then forgotten.

The wish-granting mechanics are also oddly slack. In most genie stories, the three-wishes constraint creates structure: the protagonist has to choose carefully because resources are finite. Here, the rules are loosely enforced, which removes pressure and makes Bernard's eventual change of heart feel less earned. He doesn't sacrifice anything for it.

Curtis has written some of the most technically precise romantic comedies in the English language. Four Weddings and a Funeral, Notting Hill, Love Actually all work partly because they're built on clockwork structures where every scene does at least two things. Genie has scenes that do one thing, or nothing. The climax, set at Christmas, involves a series of last-minute logistical coincidences that feel assembled rather than inevitable.

Is Genie Worth Watching as a Christmas Movie?

For a specific audience, yes. If you have children under ten, a couch, and no strong opinions about movie craft, this will work fine as a Christmas Eve watch. McCarthy is committed and likeable throughout, the New York Christmas setting is photogenic, and the core message (be present for your family) is harmless and true.

If you're looking for the kind of Christmas comedy that rewards adult attention, this isn't it. The 1991 original, available on DVD and YouTube, is funnier and stranger and more willing to be weird. Lenny Henry's performance as Josephus has a physical comedy energy that the script here doesn't quite harness in McCarthy.

Rotten Tomatoes has the film at 32% from critics, with audiences being noticeably more forgiving. That gap is probably accurate. Critics are watching it as a movie. Audiences are watching it on the couch during the holidays, and that context does a lot of heavy lifting.