ELF Rating: (out of 5 stars) Director: Jon Favreau Producers: Jon Berg, Todd Komarnicki, Shauna Robertson Writer: David Berenbaum Director of Photography: Greg Gardiner Cast: Will Ferrell, Jimmy Caan, Zooey Deschanel, Bob Newhart Visit the IMDB page for full cast and crew.

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Review by: Dan Tester
11/9/03

It must be the first week of November, because Christmas is in the air. Merry Christmas to you and yours! It was most definitely in the air at the mall, as excited shoppers hustled and bustled among gawdy holiday decorations and the smooth sound of Dean Martin singing "Let It Snow," as I tunnelvisioned myself toward the theater to see Elf, the first bonafide Christmas movie of this two month holiday season.

I have to admit at the outset, I had no idea this was a "kids" movie. I mean, Elf stars Will Ferrell (whose last film featured him running nude down a city street and refereeing a topless mud wrestling match) and is directed by Jon Favreau, whose films include the most certainly un-kid friendly Swingers and Made. So imagine my surprise as I sat down in my seat to discover the kiddie chaos around me that somewhat resembled the opening scene of The Muppet Movie. Surely these parents are irresponsible, I thought to myself, bringing their little ones to a movie like this. But sadly, I was the ultimate sucker here, because Elf is most surely a kiddie film.

That said, the movie mostly works. Elf tells the story of Buddy (Will Ferrell), who as a toddler fumbled his way into Santa's goodie bag on Christmas Eve and is not discovered until he crawls back out at the North Pole. Santa (Ed Asner) apparently thinks the only solution is to keep the child, and asks a kindly senior elf (Bob Newhart) to raise the "human" as his own. This kind of disturbed me in a way. I mean, clearly in the scene of the unintended baby abduction, the baby seems quite well taken care of and the interiors of the house appear to be of the upper class quality. It seems that this baby was loved. So wouldn't the parents be horribly disturbed to discover their young child missing on Christmas morning? Surely their lives would be horrific and haunted from that day on. "What happened to my beautiful little baby?" is surely a thought that would cause tortuous hell for the parents from that day until the day they died. But anyway, this is completely glossed over. The mother barely even registers a mention in the film. And to even make it even easier to digest, it turns out the child's father never even knew the kid existed.

The film's early scenes show Buddy's emergence from toddler to gargantuan human, towering over the elves. It is clear that there is something different about Buddy, but Buddy is just so darned good-natured and naïve that nothing registers. Eventually his surrogate father decides it is time to tell Buddy the truth of his existence, and gives him information about his long lost father (Jimmy Caan) living in New York. Thus, Buddy begins a journey to a "magical land" named New York for a long-overdue reunion. He ends up in the big city, tracks down his father, and hilarity ensues. Okay, not always hilarity, but sometimes hilarity, and there are enough chuckles and just a basic overall sweetness to recommend Elf.

Will Ferrell is very good as Buddy the Elf. He commits 100% to this naïve, innocent soul, and thus an affinity for Buddy is developed. His antics admittedly get a little old near the end of the film (there is only so much humor that can be derived from a six foot man in an Elf outfit walking around New York), but I give him credit for sticking with it and never compromising. Jimmy Caan is an odd choice for Ferrell's corrupt dad (who learns a lesson of course), but I just enjoy seeing Jimmy Caan any old time, and here he is fine (although I have to admit I saw a glimmer in his eyes in virtually every one of his scenes that seemed to be saying "What the hell am I doing here?") Bob Newhart elicits some laughs as Buddy's adoptive father elf, particularly in early scenes in which he is raising the young child. Just look at Newhart's face as he rides around on young Buddy's back as Buddy speeds around on a bicycle. Funny stuff. Zooey Deschanel is cute as the love interest, and Peter Dinklage (also in The Station Agent currently in release) is great as the angry, eccentric dwarf author whom Buddy mistakes for a Christmas Elf. I also enjoyed the little references to many of those classic television holiday specials of the '60's (namely The Year Without a Santa Claus and Frosty the Snowman). It is a nice touch, and the opening credit sequence is a direct nod to the Saul Bass created openings of those past classics.

There is one other thing that kind of bugs me about Elf, message-wise. We are informed early in the film that Santa's sleigh, although pulled by flying reindeer, is really reliant on "Christmas Spirit" to maintain flight. Towards the end of the film, as Santa's sleigh is grounded due to "0%" Christmas Spirit in the air, a young child grabs Santa's book of names and busts in on a live remote news report, and begins to read off the names of kids on the list, and the gifts they are going to receive. As the kids hear what they are getting, they get all excited, and suddenly the "Christmas Spirit Meter" starts to rise on Santa's sleigh, and they are able to take off. Now, what kind of message is this? It was mostly just greed as far as I can see. The message of Elf appears to be that Christmas spirit doesn't exist until a kid finds out he's getting an X-box. This kind of bugged me until I walked out of the theater, back into that decadent hell known as the shopping mall, and again noticed the Christmas wonderland around me on Nov. 9th as "Santa" was ringing his bell and horrible women were fighting over "special holiday priced" panties at Victoria's Secret. Merry Christmas, everyone!!!

Okay, this is a kid's movie. I enjoyed it more than most movies for the little ones. The kids in the theater seemed to love it. I laughed enough to recommend the film, and can most confidently report it is a film for the whole family. Sure, there are some winks and nods tossed in for the adults, but far too few. There is a gag referencing Bigfoot that was as surprisingly hilarious as anything I have seen this year at the movies, but for the most part, the humor is designed for the kiddies. I'm still curious what attracted Jon Favreau to this material; I guess he just needed a commercial success.

A star rating was hard to me to ascertain for Elf, because I need to stay completely open-minded and remember to view it as a PG-rated film for kids, not my usual fare. I would probably normally give it three stars, but hey, it's Nov. 9th, 'tis the season of giving, and I am in a Christmas kind of mood. So three and a half stars for Elf! God bless us, everyone. Now get out and start shopping people. Only 46 days left.

But as always, it is only one man's opinion.

(A New Line Cinema release. Opened in wide release on November 7, 2003.)