12/12/09 - Elf

Elf (2003, 97 min)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0319343/

Well, to kick off the holiday season, I decided to watch Elf. I watched it around this time last year for the first time and I really ended up liking it more than I thought I would. I'm not a huge Will Ferrell fan but everything just works out right for this film. I describe it as one of those movies where it is greater than the sum of its parts.

Elf follows Buddy the Elf (really a human) played by Will Ferrell as he goes from the North Pole to find his dad in New York City. James Caan plays his dad, Walter, a grumpy and miserly children's bookseller. Buddy's extended family is Walter's wife Emily (Mary Steenburgen) and son Michael (Daniel Tay). Buddy also meets Jovie (Zooey Deschanel) at the large Christmas shop Gimbels of New York City. Playing Santa is Edward Asner and Papa Elf is played by Bob Newhart. We get a fairly traditional Christmas-esque story where Buddy's naïveté brings Christmas spirit to everyone.

The acting here is surprisingly good. Ferrell's work is usually pretty poor in my opinion, mainly due to the comedic style he employs of which I'm simply just not a fan. But he manages to hit all the right notes with Buddy here, perhaps because of the character's simpleness, but it still is a joy to watch. It might also be that Ferrell isn't trying to overdo anyone else here and steal the show with witty one-liners. Instead, he plays his part and just does a great job at it. Similarly with Caan. I'm a fan of Caan to begin with, but he was perfectly cast in this film. The remainder of the cast hold their own, no doubt about that, but these two are the focus, both acting wise and story wise.

I mentioned above that I feel that Elf is greater than the sum of its parts. By this I mean that Elf has a lot of flaws but when you step back and look at the film as a whole, they're forgotten by the overall feel of the movie. This isn't to say the Elf overcomes its flaws or anything, just that the "Christmas spirit" that the movie pushes somehow works its charm and wonder on the film itself. The biggest flaw is some of the character development and the last twenty minutes of the movie. It almost seems as if they realized they needed to include Santa in the end and make some conclusion. The "save Santa" ending is corny and, honestly, pretty lame and boring. There's some cheesy Christmas spirit stuff here, but, like I said above, it just works and overcomes the bad story spin. Further, Walter never really displays true Christmas spirit in my mind. Sure, he changes his mind to help his son pretty much on a whim, but then at the end we see him not participating in the caroling. I don't really get the point of this. Has he embraced Christmas like we thought? Well, apparently not - he's not singing. Or has he not embraced Christmas but has embraced his family? If this is the case, then the whole plot is twisted and a lot of points the movie is trying to make end up failing so I don't see this being a realistic point. So I end up puzzled here, and I found this one part a major letdown.

However, I see Elf as a silly Christmas movie when all is said and done. There's some corny moments but Buddy is just a joy to watch as he explores New York City and displays a child's excitement at the simplest of things. This is what makes the movie in my opinion. Ferrell is the star of the show in this movie and he is because he doesn't try to be the star - if that makes sense. He just goes with the flow of the film, embracing the joy that everyone should have for the Christmas season.

Overall, I gave this film a 7/10. There's quite a few negatives of the film and I'm pretty sure I mentioned them all (or at least most of them) up there. But this doesn't make Elf a bad movie. Could it be a movie I rewatch every Christmas? Yeah, it actually could. It's just a quality film throughout but the flaws it has keep it from being great.