| Overall Grade: |
A- |
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| Story: |
A+ |
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| Acting: |
B+ |
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| Direction: |
B+ |
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| Visuals: |
B |
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Read this and take a holiday note
by Yahoo! Movies User (movies profile)
Oct 5, 2006
204
of
269 people found this review helpful
For those of you that thought Will Ferrell had only been lucky to dodge the "Saturday Night Live" curse with "Old School" and "A Night At The Roxbury" rest assured that it was not luck. Will Ferrell scores again with the quirky and offbeat comedy "Elf" directed by Jon Favreau. This is Ferrell's big step out. In his other two movies he had backup. Luke Wilson and Jon Favreau's best bud, Vince Vaughn teamed up with him in "Old School" while his SNL castmate, Chris Kattan aided Ferrell in "A Night At The Roxbury." On his own, Will Ferrell is very able to carry this comedy about a Santa's elf who discovers he is human. In some ways this movie will remind people of Steve Martin's "The Jerk." Like the character of Navin Johnson, Ferrell's elf character named Buddy has to pass through absurd situations with no loss to his innocence. Not many actors are capable of sustaining this believability over so long a period of time as Ferrell does. That is why the comedy "Elf" is sure to be a Christmas blockbuster when it is released on November 7, 2003.
Buddy the elf's story began thirty years ago when as a baby he accidentally is taken back with Santa Claus(Edward Asner) who was delivering presents on Christmas Eve. Not knowing what to do with him, Santa's elves decide to adopt him and make him one of their own. Growing up alongside the other elves, young Buddy has no clue that he is any different from the others. One day he unexpectedly learns who he really is and decides to go to New York City to find his real father. Young Buddy's innocence and faith in people is going to get a heavy workout.
Not to sound jaded, "Elf" is clearly an attempt to make a classic Christmas movie. Many have tried and many have failed. The last true success in my memory is 1983's "A Christmas Story." This movie was released quietly and gradually through the years established itself as the genuine article. Other efforts such as the strange "Edward Scissorhands," directed by Tim Burton, tried valiantly, but lacked that certain something. "The Nightmare Before Christmas," produced by Tim Burton(he never gave up), is a classic, but it has stop action characters that lack the needed warmth of the human touch. "Elf" tries to capture the Christmas spirit by having Santa Claus's sleigh run on the spirit the people feel during the holiday season. In the last few years Santa Claus has had to add a rocket thruster to the underside of his sleigh due to the decline of Christmas spirit. This attempt by Jon Favreau comes off a little heavy handed. He strains himself to make this ploy work, but something is not right. It does not feel authentic. Similar to the Catch 22 module, if you try for it you will fail, but if you stumble across it there is a chance of success. In my mind "Elf" misses the classic label, but does stand tall as a very funny comedy. There is no shame to that.
Favreau does a nice job of paying tribute to the early television Christmas classics by having a few claymation animals around the North Pole that hang out with Buddy. These look similar to the creatures in the "Rudolph The Red Nosed Reinder" classic from the early sixties. The body of Leon The Snowman who says goodbye to Buddy looks like televisions' early version of "Frosty The Snowman." Clearly Jon Favreau is having fun reliving his childhood.
Setting aside his director duties for a moment, Jon Favreau makes a cameo as a doctor. It can be seen why Favreau is taking up the director reins. He has plumped out tremendously since his and Vince Vaughn's appearance in the "Swingers" movie. If Favreau was any bigger he could have saved money by sending Edward Asner home and playing Santa Claus himself.
Zooey Deschanel("Big Trouble") stars as Buddy's love interest, Jovie. She first appears as a hardened New Yorker working at a department store that foolishly employs Buddy. Over time Buddy's naivette wins her over. With her hair dyed blonde, Deschanel looks like Reese Witherspoon at certain times.
James Caan plays Buddy's long lost dad, Walter Hobbs. Before Buddy left the North Pole he had been informed that his dad was on the 'Naughty' list. Hobbs is in the book publishing business and he thinks nothing of sending out misprinted children's books if it will save the company money. James Caan's Walter Hobbs does not come across very convincing as a 'for real' mean man. Other than his business practices he seems like a nice guy. This niceness of Hobb's hobbles the magnitude of Buddy's turning him around and the emotional pull on the audience.
There is a scene in "Elf" that involves Buddy continually calling a children's book author, who is a midget, an elf. This hearkens back to a story that the science fiction author Harlan Ellison once told at a comic book convention in the eighties. Ellison recounted in the sixties when he was having a writers' conference at a long table with a television producer for "Star Trek" and that the producer said something to infuriate him. Ellison, a very, very short man, jumped onto the table and slid its' length to punch out the man. An identical scene happens here as the midget author takes out Buddy. Either Favreau or the scriptwriter, David Berenbaum, had come across Harlan Ellison at one time in their lives.
"Elf" is a great comedy. Favreau keeps the scenes short in this movie. This helps the pace and if a certain scene is weak(which there are not many) it is soon forgotten as the next appears. Will Ferrell is sensational as Buddy who thinks he is doing the right thing, but is later seen writing a note to his dad, "Sorry I destroyed your lives!"
I would give this movie four out of five stars. Be sure to put "Elf" on your Christmas shopping list. |
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