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ELF
6/10
USA 2003
: Jon FAVREAU : 97 mins
In autumn 2001,
when Zoolander
and Jay
and Silent Bob Strike Back were released within a month of each
other in the UK, it would be fair to say that this critic was not
a member of the Ferrell Fan Club. On JSBSB, I commented “Will Ferrell
brings the picture to a halt every time he pops up as a hapless Fed[eral
Agent].” On Zoolander: “Will Ferrell (as Gaultieresque designer
Mugatu) does his level best to keep the laugh-ratio down. How does
this comedy dead-zone get work?”
Since then,
Ferrell hasn’t just managed to “get work” – thanks to Elf’s
unexpected smash-hit status at the US box-office, he’s the hottest new
comic talent since Jim Carrey’s Ace Ventura breakthrough. To be
fair, this isn’t a total shock – his other 2003 release, Old
School*, was very much a step in the right direction: back in
May I wrote that “Ferrell – who so often tries way too hard (Zoolander) – is surprisingly good
value as the volatile Frank, whose mask of doughy ‘settled-down’ dullness
often rapidly slips to reveal the beer-guzzling party-monster lurking
beneath.”
Old School
worked partly because it used Ferrell’s annoying boisterousness
to positive comic effect. Elf does likewise, though his role here
is many ways the polar opposite of his ‘beer-guzzling party-monster’ Frank.
Literally polar, that is: his character Buddy** grew up at the
North Pole among Santa (Ed Asner) and his elves, for reasons too complicated
to explain here.
The story proper
kicks in when Buddy travels to New York where his existence comes as a
major shock to his biological father, irascible children’s-book publisher
Walter (James Caan). Walter is alarmed by this six-foot bundle of child-like
energy dressed in full elf costume, and doesn’t welcome the ‘new’ addition
to his family (wife Mary Steenburgen, neglected young son Daniel Tay).
Buddy finds a warmer reception when he accidentally starts working at
a department store where his ‘special skills’ come in very handy at the
toy department in the run-up to Christmas. Comic, romantic and festive
developments ensue.
Buddy initially
disconcerts, but ultimately wins over, everyone he meets (his relationship
with his father is essentially a case of Candide thawing Scrroge) and
most viewers will probably follow suit. His upbeat gee-whizzness can get
a little overpowering, but there are enough decent gags along the way
to ensure Elf never quite bogs down into sentimentality. The best
of which is also the most subtle, namely the fact that Buddy’s Elf costume
turns not a single hair or head on the streets of anything-goes modern
Manhattan.
As Christmas
movies go, this one is - at the very least - a semi-spoof, with an effective
knowing post-modern edge to the corniness. Even so, the fundamental concept
doesn’t quite hold water: Buddy isn’t naïve/innocent/child-like because
he’s an elf - as we see at the beginning, most elves (including Papa Elf)
don’t share these traits at all. And characters often remark that “he
thinks he’s an elf” when it’s made clear very early on that Buddy knows
he’s human.
On the plus
side, Zooey (All the
Real Girls) Deschanel exudes an alluringly sleepy Chloe Sevigny-like
presence as Buddy’s bemused love-interest Jovie. And there’s a terrific
cameo from Peter Dinklage as a four-foot-odd take-no-crap children’s author
who isn’t amused when Buddy innocently asks if he’s from Santa’s workshop.
Dinklage doesn’t have nearly as much screen time as he deserves here,
but this appearance – alongside his much meatier and radically different
performance in drama The Station
Agent – is enough to confirm the unexpected arrival of a major
screen acting talent. In the case of Ferrell, however, an even more unexpected
star has been born. Will Ferrell! As A
Mighty Wind’s Fred Willard would put it: “wha’ happen’???!
9th
January, 2004
(seen 6th January : UGC Boldon)
* In the same
review I noted that Ferrell’s co-star Vince Vaughn “offers an amusing
(if alarmingly pudgy) version of what his breezily amoral Swingers
character Trent might turned into if/when he’d ever managed to ‘grow
up’.” Vaughn, however, is Gollum-thin these days compared with Jon
Favreau – the Swingers star and writer who (functionally) directs
Elf and cameos as a doctor. It’s good to see Favreau doing well
– but not good at all to see he’s become so worryingly fat. Unless, of
course, that’s some kind of prosthetic false face he’s wearing on screen…
** Strictly
speaking, “Buddie” – he’s named after nappy brand Little Buddie Diapers.
by Neil
Young
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