They just don’t make Christmas movies like they used to. Sure, you’ve got countless yuletide classics to choose from — A Charlie Brown Christmas, It’s a Wonderful Life, A Christmas Story and so on — but how many such classics do we have from this decade? Surviving Christmas? Deck the Halls? Christmas with the Kranks? Fred Claus? The Nutcracker in 3D? Either of the sequels to The Santa Clause? I suppose you could count Bad Santa if you’re feeling generous, and maybe that live-action The Grinch if you’re feeling really generous.
Maybe it’s just me, but it seems like nobody’s putting any effort into the genre anymore. New Christmas movies come out every December, only to be forgotten or universally scorned by January. It’s like the filmmakers are just going through the motions of portraying Christmas spirit, passing off painful attempts at comedy as holiday cheer just to make a quick buck. I find it absurd that in this day and age, with all of the talent and technology Hollywood has to offer, the movie industry has lost its ability to make a heartwarming holiday film that can stand the test of time.
Still, I will readily admit that Elf comes closer than any other Christmas film that I’ve seen from this decade.
First, I’d like to talk about this movie’s primary strength. The one thing that all of its successes stem from. I’m of course referring to the casting. Even the film’s tertiary cast is loaded with such comedic talents as Artie Lange, Andy Richter, Amy Sedaris, Faizon Love and Tenacious D’s Kyle Gass. Bob Newhart appears as our lead’s adoptive father. Santa Claus himself is played by Ed Asner. The less I spoil about Peter Dinklage’s role, the better. Director Jon Favreau gave himself a walk-on role and his pal Peter Billingsley — Ralphie Parker hisownself — got a scene as a boss elf. Last but not least, Ray Fucking Harryhausen got a cameo voicing a polar bear cub.
As for our film’s secondary cast, Zooey Deschanel got a role as this film’s love interest. Personally, I have mixed feelings about Deschanel as an actress. She’s a pretty face, but I’ve seen her give awful performances just as often as I’ve seen her deliver solid ones. Based on her track record, I’ve concluded that Deschanel can only be tolerable with the right direction. She needs someone behind the camera who knows how to use her. Luckily, Favreau knows how to use her. She looks wonderful here and the script wisely spares her character from doing too much heavy lifting. I’ve heard her talk in monotone through a few performances, but she shows off a gorgeous singing voice in this film that I didn’t know she had. The love subplot was a little rushed, though, but not enough that it seriously hurt the movie. Overall, I’d call her performance here surprisingly good.
Next up is James Caan, who — for lack of a better description — plays the film’s resident Scrooge. However, it’s important to note that Caan doesn’t play Walter Hobbs as someone who hates Christmas, just as a workaholic. He doesn’t care that kids will be disappointed in a crappy book with only two finished pages, he just wants the books out there so the company doesn’t lose a fortune. He works to maintain his own livelihood and that of his family, but he forgets to live for himself and he doesn’t show much appreciation for his family. Put simply, the guy’s lost all perspective. It’s a very common character arc, but Caan keeps his character relatable and just on this side of likable. After all, he may be overwhelmed and annoyed at the arrival of our protagonist, but who can blame him? Oh, and it also helps that Caan gets a few funny moments of his own (his reaction to Buddy’s introductory song comes to mind).
It’s also worth noting that the film only barely acknowledges Walter or his family buying gifts, decorating or participating in any of the other superficial, commercial aspects of Christmas. Indeed, the movie seems almost entirely void of statements for or against the commercialization of Christmas, something that I found very refreshing.
But of course, the film’s real casting coup and raison d’etre is — all together now — Will Ferrell. As wonderful and funny as this cast is, it’s Ferrell who’s the heart, soul and funny bone of this picture. He’s child-like, he’s energetic, he’s oblivious and he’s completely impossible to shame. Nobody else could have taken this role and made the film work like Ferrell did.
Though to be fair, a lot of what makes Buddy such an effective lead character is in how this film treats elves. By this film’s mythology, elves are ideal Christmas workers because they are perpetually happy by nature. There’s seriously no such thing as an elf that’s jaded, pessimistic or mean. This film cheerfully plays the Santa myth completely straight, refusing to so much as acknowledge the contradictions with what we know about the North Pole’s geography or the ubiquitous jokes about global warming, slave labor, deficit spending, etc. (an allowance is made for how far toys have come since the old woodworking days, however).
Obviously, this premise gives Ferrell an excuse to turn up the manic energy and yank off the knob. But perhaps more importantly, it gives our first act a tremendous amount of sincerity and joy, and when our movie leaves the North Pole, Ferrell picks up that torch and carries it through to the end. Once in the jaded, pessimistic and mean New York City, our adoptive elf and his perpetually jolly upbringing are played for laughs against the dumbstruck natives. On the one hand, this makes Buddy an ideal of pure childlike wonder and unmatched holiday jubilee. At the same time, he’s very humorous in his contrast of one buffoon against a “straight” world. To put it simply, Buddy is funny because he’s so pure and proud of it, which makes him doubly likable. Furthermore, this hostile setting and the ensuing jokes gives our film’s ubiquitous holiday cheer a pleasant release valve. This film takes its Christmas spirit seriously, but not so seriously that they can’t play it for laughs. This is actually a very clever way to keep the film from getting overly saccharine.
The plot is of course secondary to Ferrell’s comedic chops. The story is really just a means of getting Buddy from one comedic situation to the next, but that really isn’t such a problem when the comedic situations are the film’s primary method of conveying its central theme. However, I do feel the need to say that the story was predictable in several places and the climax’s resolution was pretty much entirely B.S. Call me a Grinch, but I’m of the opinion that anytime a plot is driven forward purely by “spirit” or just wishing hard enough, there’s usually something in the execution that stinks of implausibility.
John Debney provides a very good score and the movie is visually serviceable. Bonus points for the North Pole sequences, which used set design and forced perspective to make Will Ferrell appear relatively giant without any computer assistance. The North Pole sequence also has creatures that looked like some amazing stop-motion works. I don’t know if they were CGI or actually stop-motion (the latter, I’d guess. I somehow doubt that Harryhausen would have agreed to a cameo if it were otherwise), but it was a great job either way. However, the film does resort to CGI during the climax and it looked more than a little spotty.
All told, I very much enjoyed Elf. It’s a legitimately funny movie bursting at the seams with a candid optimism about Christmas that I don’t see much of in pop culture anymore. Moreover, it’s obvious from the plot’s adherence to established genre norms and the limited references to anything that would date the film (electronics, pop culture references, etc.) that this film was made to last. I could easily see this film staying just as enjoyable ten years from now, which is something that I can’t say for too many other recent Christmas movies. Last but not least, the film has a wonderful cast, centered around Will Ferrell at his finest. If you haven’t seen this film yet, check it out.