Finally, I
get the chance to balance my earlier viewing of
"Bad Santa" with this sweet natured, innocent
holiday film featuring Will Ferrell.
I have
attempted several times to view this film, and
always seemed to arrive a few minutes late and
ended up seeing another film. Finally, the day
after Christmas I was able to see this film.
The day after Christmas, my Christmas spirit
finally arrived. I'll confess that after the
first 5 minutes I found myself thinking..."Oh my
god, this is going to be such a disappointment."
It started off with such sincerity and goofiness
and weirdness that I found myself almost
disoriented...yet, it was truly only a matter of
minutes before I found myself completely
captivated by this film's charm, innocence and
spirit.
As directed by Jon Favreau, "Elf" has a "go for
it" spirit that is beautifully captured by Will
Ferrell. This man seems unafraid to completely
surrender himself to a role and seems to have
complete faith in everything working out in the
end. To Ferrell's credit, he pulls off things
with this character that actors before him have
failed in doing. An example would be Robin
Williams and his film "Jack." Williams never
quite erased the general "ickiness" of a 40 plus
year old man with immense amounts of body hair
playing a child. He never quite "surrendered" to
the role enough that the childlike innocence and
wonder was exhibited clearly. Now, of course,
there is a difference here...Ferrell is, in
fact, not playing a child. Yet, he is playing
the innocence and wonder...he is playing a
"child" in the emotional sense who goes off
looking for his daddy...and he plays these
scenes with such innocence and abandon that you
can't help but want him to find the daddy he's
always longed for. While I understand Billy Bob
Thornton's Golden Globe nomination for "Bad
Santa," I can't help but be more impressed by
Ferrell's performance here as Buddy.
In supporting roles, there's a wonderful
performance by James Caan as Buddy's long-lost
father. While I wasn't quite convinced by his
abrupt change from money and success oriented to
"let's go find Buddy," I still loved the
attitude and conviction of his performance.
There were other performers here that I didn't
expect...I'd not heard that Mary Steenburgen was
in this film, and what a perfect fit. Her
performance as James Caan's wife and Buddy's new
"mom" was just beautiful. This is my favorite
kind of role for Steenburgen!
Zooey Deschanel as "Jovie" the cute Elf who
Buddy "falls for" also does a nice job. What I
appreciated here was the Favreau kept the
attraction innocent. It never went beyond a
kiss, and never went beyond the childlike
qualities of "Buddy." If I have had one
complaint about the film "Big," it's that we
move from Tom Hank's innocence in seeing
Elizabeth McGovern's bra...to his becoming
"experienced." I couldn't help but think about
the fact that she'd just done a 13-year-old...it
took an otherwise innocent film and made it a
bit creepy. This film wisely chose to remain
innocent.
Other strong performances include Ed Asner as
Santa, Peter Dinklage as Miles, Faizon Love as
the Gimbel's Manager and Daniel Tay as the young
Michael. Unexpected appearances were turned in
by the wonderful Andy Richter and Kyle Gass (of
"Tenacious D" fame). In a smaller role, I also
enjoyed the performance of Claire Lautier as the
reporter covering Santa's landing in New York.
I was disappointed with the performance of
comedy legend Bob Newhart as Papa Elf...While
the role itself is certainly not fully
developed, Newhart's performance was almost too
sleepy at times. I was aware the performance was
supposed to be dry, but it felt too dry.
The film's set design and costume design are a
throwback to classic Christmas specials, and it
works beautifully. Finally, a film that captures
the spirit of Christmas without resorting to the
glitz and glamour of films such as "Grinch" and
"Cat in the Hat." Those films pale in comparison
to this one. "Elf" also features a wonderful
soundtrack.
"Elf" is not a perfect film, but I can't help
but think that Christmas films should strive for
less perfection and more spirit. "Elf" captures
the spirit that I long to have during the
holiday season. It made me laugh constantly, cry
occasionally and believe in Santa once again. I
highly recommend this film.
© Written by
Richard Propes
TC Candler's Comment
Cutesy
doesn't cut it. I liked parts of the film,
but never really had a good belly laugh from it.
There is far better Christmas fare to be had.
Jacob
Hall's Comment
N/A
