What a lovable piece of fluff this is! I was prompted to revisit it by my cousin, and it came up in some other conversation as well with a good friend on Facebook. After watching it, I instantly began incorporating a favorite line ("You sit on a throne of lies") into my daily conversation. This is, after all, what I do. I take amusing lines from pop culture and try to make myself look cool through random quotations throughout my day. It's a good life.
The plot involves a young man (Will Ferrell) who was left at an orphanage as an infant, and ends up being adopted by an elf in Santa's workshop (you see, the little guy crawls into Santa's gift bag on Christmas Eve and finds himself at the North Pole). Buddy the elf's adopted father (Bob Newhart) finally breaks the news to his son that Buddy is not an elf, but a human. Santa and Buddy's dad reveal the identity of Buddy's biological father. He is an executive who works in the Empire State Building (James Caan), and he is on the "naughty list." As Buddy tries to navigate living in New York, he is helped by Jovie (Zoey Deschanel), a reluctant department store elf who finds herself charmed by this childlike man who comes from the North Pole. Together, they must find a solution to a growing energy crisis: since so few people believe in Santa anymore, his sleigh (being powered by Christmas Spirit, of course) isn't working like it used to.
The movie works because it is funny. The fish out of water story works, and Will Ferrell brings the kind of devotion to the character that kind of reminds me of Gene Wilder in Young Frankenstein. He dives into this role. With that in mind, one either likes Will Ferrell's brand of humor or doesn't. I have always been a fan of his, so I like the humor here. His style is over the top, but still PG rated, so I could watch it with the kids. The boys loved the prolonged belch at the table (some things seem to be ingrained), and all of the kids loved the fanciful story.
It is nice to have another entertaining holiday film in the arsenal. Does it represent everything that I think this time of year represents? Of course it doesn't. But it does have a cuteness to it that is charming, it has Bob Newhart in an Elf suit, it features NYC at Christmas, and it's got some great one liners. In short, it is worth seeing for its laughs and its mood. Enjoy :)
