November 9, 2003 -- “Elf” is another in a long line of romantic comedies tailored for the Christmas season. Another one, “Love Actually” opened in a limited release this week. “Elf” is both mildly funny and mildly romantic. It is also good-hearted and it has plenty of Christmas spirit. The film is plagued by a sloppy story and inconsistent characters. The main charms of this movie are around the edges and in the margins.

Will Farrell (“Old School”) stars as Buddy, a man raised by elves. As a baby at an orphanage, he crawls into Santa's gift bag (Santa is played by veteran actor Ed Asner of “Hard Rain”) and ends up at the North Pole. When he finally discovers he isn't really an elf (it takes him 30 years to figure this out!), he travels from the North Pole to New York City to find his real father. His father, Walter (James Caan of “The Way of the Gun”), is a workaholic who is on Santa's naughty list. He has a mean streak a mile wide. Buddy's mission is to melt Walter's cold heart and connect with Walter's wife (who is Buddy's stepmother) and their other son, Michael (Daniel Tay of “American Splendor”). Walter's wife, Emily, is played by the loveable Mary Steenburgen “Sunshine State”.

There is a subplot about Walter's troubles because the publishing company he works for is losing money. He needs to come up with a good idea for a children's book in a few weeks after his last book flopped. Otherwise, he'll lose his job. Another subplot is the romantic comedy bit between Buddy and Jovie (Zooey Deschanel of “All the Real Girls”), a pretty store employee at Gimbels department store.

The comedy of the movie lies mostly with Buddy being a fish out of water. He doesn't fit into the world of elves, being three times the size of the other elves. He also doesn't fit into New York, either, with his tights and his elf costume. He looks more like a fugitive from a bad production of “Robin Hood.” He pulls a lot of dumb stunts like eating old gum stuck to hand rails near the subway. This is supposed to be funny, but it seemed like pretty lame comedy to me. Variations on this same sort of slapstick comedy seems to keep going on forever. Buddy keeps acting clueless and Walter keeps acting like a jerk. Only during the last few minutes of the film is there a sudden (and unlikely) reversal of these behaviors. Buddy and Walter both adapt, and begin to act more like real people. We get lots of Christmas spirit, Christmas carols, etc. By then, it is almost too late.

The main part of the film is pretty lame, but there are some nice touches around the edges. Who would have thought it, but Will Ferrell is perfect in the lead role. Zooey Deschanel has both a weird name and a lovely singing voice. Bob Newhart, a comedian who's been around since the middle of the last century, plays Papa Elf, and is as funny as ever. This, along with Mary Steenbergen, was inspired casting. Peter Dinklage of “The Station Agent” is funny as feisty children's author Miles Finch. Peter Billingsley (who played Ralphie Parker in the much-beloved Christmas movie, “A Christmas Story”) has a cameo in this film as an elf supervisor at the North Pole. Another homage in this film goes to 83-year-old Ray Harryhausen who is involved in a brief animation sequence in the film involving a snowman and a bear cub. Harryhausen is the master of stop-motion animation, having done fantastic animation sequences in many films (in the days before digital animation took over), including “The Golden Voyage of Sinbad” and “Clash of the Titans.” It's good to see that Ray is still active. Singer Leon Redbone does the voice for one of these animated characters, Leon the Snowman. Andy Richter, formerly of the Conan O'Brien talk show, plays Morris, a writer who works for Walter. Nepotism alert, Will Ferrell's brother, Patrick, plays a security guard in the film. There are also some nifty jokes centered on that old toy the Etch-a-sketch.

This is not a bad film, but it isn't a very good one either. I'm not going to be a Scrooge and give it a thumbs down. I am a sucker for Christmas movies, so I'm giving this a C+ rating. There are lots of other critics who liked this movie more than I did, and a lot who liked it less, too. Comedies are difficult to judge. I didn't laugh much, and neither did my wife, who can't stand the kind of humor where you are supposed to laugh at someone else's stupidity. I saw this movie in a fairly crowded theater, and other people were laughing, sometimes at the oddest times. Maybe I'm just out of the loop on this one.

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Copyright © 2003 Robert Roten. All rights reserved.
Reproduced with the permission of the copyright holder.

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