Elf (2003) – If I
were to redo my “Top 10 Christmas Season Movies” list from two years ago, I
imagine Elf would make the cut. As the film began, between Bob Newhart’s nonpareil delivery and the credit
“directed by Jon Favreau,” I knew I was in for a good time. In the film that everyone else had seen but
me, Will Ferrell stars as Buddy, an elf by adoption who discovers he’s a human
being and sets out from the North Pole in search of his real father (James
Caan). Along the way, he falls in love
with department store elf Jovie (a distractingly blonde Zooey Deschanel) and
helps Santa (Ed Asner) recapture the Christmas spirit. Elf
utilizes the “fish out of water” plotline very well, juxtaposing Buddy’s
wide-eyed enthusiasm with the cynicism of New York City but without going for
either a laugh at Buddy’s expense or the moral equivalent of treacle. What makes it a wonderful Christmas feature,
aside from the music and the set dressing, is the way the film participates in
the basic premise of most of the classic Christmas specials, that of the misfit
who saves the day. It helps that the
cast, comprised of people who wouldn’t jump immediately to mind for the holiday
season, is in top form, especially Caan who miraculously isn’t playing another
version of Sonny Corleone. Favreau, who
makes a cameo, keeps the laughs coming, though, without ever resorting to the
heavyhanded moralizing one might have come to expect from a Christmas
classic. No, the word of the day is “fun,”
youthful and fresh, and I think I’ve found myself a new holiday tradition.That does it for this week’s edition of “Monday at the Movies.” We’ll see you here next week! Have a holly jolly Christmas, all.
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