Elf

2003’s “Elf”, directed by Jon Favreau.

Starring Will Farrell, James Caan, Edward Asner, Mary Steenburgen, Daniel Tay, Bob Newhart, Zooey Deschanel, Amy Sedaris, and Peter Dinklage.

What is it about?

Accidentally taken to the North Pole after crawling into Santa’s bag of goodies, human Will Farrell is raised by Santa and his pint sized workshop Elves. Making toys to meet quotas proves difficult for his less dexterous human hands, and one day Santa spills the beans about Farrell being human, and how his dad (James Caan) resides in New York. Farrell heads to New York, meets up with Caan’s family (Mary Steenburgen and Daniel Tay), and finds a job in a department store’s North Pole section. There he meets fellow worker, Zooey Deschanel. Despite Farrell’s presence, people’s attitudes start to sour on the holiday season, which makes it difficult for Santa’s sleigh to be powered. Will people’s collective Christmas spirit be able to be revived to ensure Santa’s sleigh can fly?

Why is it worth seeing?

Will Farrell’s over the top earnestness, as the fish out of water elf-raised human jumping through New York City’s cynicism and narcissism goes far in some scenes, almost enough to make us feel the Christmas spirit. Unfortunately, many scenes and the lack of interesting characters fall flat. Not as flat as the idea that Santa’s reindeer powered sleigh (maybe) ALSO needs a karma generated turbo thruster- but pretty flat.

Director Jon Favreau does some amazing forced perspective tricks to show off the gigantic differences between Farrell and the Elves, and some clever merging of stop motion animation and CGI to display a North Pole teeming with life and spirit. But what’s with the North Pole’s bleached interiors that look like they inspired the penultimate scene (where Ennis meet’s Jack’s parents) in “Brokeback Mountain”? Favreau’s camera angles and editing at times also seem quite arbitrary, making it difficult to maintain momentum. And the tone speaks to a struggle to make a children’s Xmas film, while also shoehorning in erratic irreverent stabs to grab the adult’s attention.

Farrell and his relationship with his fellow humans, from Caan to Deschanel, feel more on auto pilot than spontaneous and genuine. And the sub plot of Caan’s struggles to not be such a workaholic at a soul destroying corporation, feels more paint by numbers than painterly. The film desperately needs more energy and authenticity from the non Farrell characters, like in the cameo scene with Peter Dinklage. How will Santa’s sleigh run (?) if the movie is running on empty?

Rating:

3/5

Trailer: Click Here.