ELF
Elf
Director: Jon Favreau
Starring: Will Ferrell, James Caan, Zooey Deschanel, Bob Newhart, Ed Asner
2003
Every year, Hollywood releases a handful of holiday films that it hopes will enter the canon of Required Holiday Viewing. More often than not, not a single film will make that list. That list is a tough nut to crack. When it includes such holiday classics as It’s a Wonderful Life, White Christmas, and A Christmas Story, not just any Christmas movie can breach the lines. It’s got to be very good indeed. Elf, at least in our household, has successfully made that list.
Buddy the Elf (Ferrell) is a human living and working in the North Pole at Santa’s (Asner) Workshop. When his elf father (Newhart) finally tells Buddy about his real human father (Caan), Buddy sets out to Manhattan to reconnect with his long lost father. When he realizes his real father is on Santa’s Naughty List, he uses all his elf charms and plucky spirit to melt his father’s heart before Christmas.
While Will Ferrell’s films are certainly not the highest caliber, his utterly sincere, genuine and naïve performance as Buddy utterly carries the film and makes the premise, ridiculous as it may sound, work as a comedy rather than a cheesy made for TV Hallmark movie. Buddy is SO cheerful and bubbly and optimistic, and Ferrell plays him straight as an arrow. Ferrell never winks at the audience in his performance, never says “I know this is crazy, just go with it!” which makes the character sincere instead of cynical.
Elf is special because it manages to be a heartwarming Christmas film that is unstoppably, incredibly funny. Most of the sidesplitting laughs come from Buddy being a fish out of water in big, bad Manhattan. The montage where Buddy first arrives in Manhattan is a high point of the film, from running around in circles in a revolving door, to accosting a white-bearded man wearing a red track suit, to happily picking up free flyer after free flyer, it’s a bundle of laughs. Then, when Buddy takes an unbeknownst job in the toy department at Gimbel’s, his reaction to a department store Santa is priceless. And when Buddy finally meets up with his dad, Walter Hobbs (Caan), the contrast of Buddy’s naïveté with Hobbs gruff, no-nonsense businessman is hysterical.
The opening of the film at the North Pole is an instant classic. Channeling every stop motion Rankin-Bass Christmas special (think the Rudolph with dentist elf), this North Pole manages to bring that world to life. The fake snowflakes, the talking snowman, the illustration-perfect snowfields are perfect. The felt elf outfits and whitewashed wooden buildings are wonderful recreations. The narwhal and other arctic puppets that wish Buddy luck on his quest to find his dad always elicit a laugh or two.
The film has extraordinarily strong supporting players and cameo parts. Ed Asner as a gruff and “too old for this job” Santa is great, telling Buddy that the real Ray’s Pizza is on 11th. Bob Newhart as Papa Elf is a hoot, opening the film by telling the audience that there are only really three jobs for elves: cobbler, making cookies (cue the Keebler tree), or making presents. Andy Richter and Kyle Gass as Walter Hobbs’ assistants at his publishing company steal their scenes as they ponder a book about a tribe of asparagus children who are self-conscious about the way their pee smells. My personal favorite is Peter Dinklage (oh, I’ve had naughty dreams about him and I’m not ashamed to admit it) as the high-powered yet short-of-stature successful children’s author, brought in to help create a pitch. He’s so take charge, and yes, sexy, in his three piece suit.
This isn't a photo from the movie. It's just a really sexy photo of PD. Because he is a gawddamn sexy beast.
There are several details about this film that I really love, that set it apart from other standard Christmas movie fare. First of all, the film totally believes that Santa is real, and doesn’t try to tell you otherwise. In fact, it confronts the naysayers head on, saying that there are rumors flying around that parents put out the presents, to which Buddy replies, “Parents couldn’t do that all in one night!” I also love that Santa’s workshop is high tech. The elves aren’t just making teddy bears and baby dolls; they’re making actual brand name toys. Etch-a-Sketches, Barbie dolls, and Bob the Builder toys all make appearances, and elf children are taught in the ways of extreme graphic chipset processors.
The first half of the film is undoubtedly stronger than the second half. The film languishes a bit in its sentimentality towards the end, as if it doesn’t quite know what to do with Walter Hobbs’ melted heart once it appears. The romance between Buddy the Elf and Jovie (Deschanel), a disillusioned department store worker, is sweet but lacking in focus. Thankfully, the denouement of the film brings us back to the North Pole and recaptures the charm of the opening, ending the movie on a high note.
I just adore this film. Elf gets put on constant replay starting the day after Thanksgiving, along with our other holiday favorites. When we first saw it in theaters in December 2003, I remember laughing so loud, yet I wasn’t laughing nearly as much as my husband, who was having trouble breathing because he was laughing so much. We both came out of it breathlessly happy and counting the days until we could get our hands on the DVD. It’s a lovely, wonderful, and incredibly funny Christmas movie.