Review: Elf

It shouldn’t come as a surprise that Will Ferrell’s insane performance almost saves the show.

Elf
Photo: New Line Cinema

Jon Favreau’s Elf tells of an orphaned tot who accidentally crawls into Santa’s gift bag and ends up at the North Pole, where he’s raised by Papa Elf (Bob Newhart) and discovers way past his adolescent prime that a crusty children’s book publisher, Walter (James Caan), is his real father. It’s a story that begins promisingly enough: The North Pole consists of frosty outsized interiors surrounded by a CGI wonderland inhabited by wind-up toy animals, and the look of this world memorably takes its cue from Candy Land to any number of stop-motion Christmas specials, like Santa Claus Is Coming to Town and Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer.

But because the filmmakers so quickly rush the overgrown Buddy (Will Ferrell) through this North Pole sequence, the utter strangeness of the locale remains largely untapped. The script is so underwritten, and the pacing so uneven, that it seems as if you’re watching a condensed version of the original product. Once Buddy arrives in New York City, the rest telegraphs itself. If you can’t figure out that Buddy’s autobiography will save his father’s career the second the scrooge is threatened with a pink slip, then you’re a stranger to all things Christmas, from Dickens to The Santa Clause. (The unwatchable final minutes evoke A Christmas Carol in Central Park, but with guest appearances by NY1 and Tolkein’s Black Riders.)

It shouldn’t come as a surprise, though, that Ferrell’s insane performance almost saves the show. When Buddy arrives in New York, Ferrell is allowed free rein over the production (not to mention elevators and escalators). In one of the film’s funnier bits, the actor’s naïve stranger-in-a-strange-land shtick targets a diner’s proclamation that they’re selling the world’s best cup of java. Ferrell’s knack for physical comedy is surpassed only by the blank-faced means by which he repeatedly calls attention to the obvious (listen for the second punchline to the film’s brilliant, gut-busting burping gag). Tragically, all is lost once Santa comes to New York and Ferrell almost completely disappears into the background.

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Score: 
 Cast: Will Ferrell, James Caan, Edward Asner, Patrick Baynham, Annie Brebner, Zooey Deschanel, Faizon Love, Daniel Tay, Bob Newhart, Mary Steenburgen  Director: Jon Favreau  Screenwriter: David Berenbaum  Distributor: New Line Cinema  Running Time: 90 min  Rating: PG  Year: 2003  Buy: Video, Soundtrack

Ed Gonzalez

Ed Gonzalez is the co-founder of Slant Magazine. A member of the New York Film Critics Circle, his writing has appeared in The Village Voice, The Los Angeles Times, and other publications.

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