Elf Review
by Laura Clifford (laura AT reelingreviews DOT com)November 6th, 2003
ELF
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On Christmas Eve, an orphanage baby, attracted by a teddy bear peaking out from Santa's sack, crawls into the bag while Santa (Ed Asner, "The Animal") is distracted by milk and cookies. Back at the North Pole, an old bachelor elf volunteers to adopt the human, but years later, when Buddy (Will Ferrell, "Old School") clearly does not fit into the toy shop world, Papa Elf (Bob Newhart, "Legally Blonde 2: Red, White & Blonde") must break the news to the boy that he is a human, not an "Elf."
Will Ferrell can stand next to the likes of Jim Carrey and Adam Sandler after proving here that he can shoulder a comedy. "Elf" is but a hairs' breadth away from becoming a Christmas classic, largely due to Ferrell's ferocious comedic instincts.
The tale begins with an amusing monologue from Newhart, detailing the three jobs fit for an elf (making shoes while cobblers sleep at night, the hazardous calling of baking cookies in trees and making toys for Santa). But Buddy is about three times the size of elves and he cannot keep up with their rigorous quotas for producing Etch-a-Sketches. Told that his real father, Walter Hobbs(James Caan, "Mickey Blue Eyes"), lives in New York City, Buddy sets out on a journey through candy cane forests towards the Big Apple.
Dad, who happens to be on Santa's naughty list, is an underhanded publisher of children's books who quickly makes Buddy Enemy #1 with his building's security officers, but after a short stint working in Gimbel's 'North Pole' (Buddy's fired for battling a 'fake' Santa, but not before beginning a sweet romance with Gimbel elf Jovie (Zooey Deschanel, "All the Real Girls")), Walter's wife, Emily (Mary Steenburgen, "Casas de los Babys") decides Buddy should stay with them. The elf-raised Buddy has trouble adjusting to the human world, wrecking havoc in dad's place of work as well as the Hobbs' household, but when Santa's sleigh stalls out in Central Park due to a lack of Christmas spirit, Buddy's there to save the day...er.. eve.
Will Ferrell gives a hilarious yet sweet reading of the man who would be elf. Sent from Santa's assembly line to testing, Ferrell is surprised anew with each appearance of the jack-in-the-box and makes us laugh each and every time. The innocence he gives lines like 'I'm a cotton-headed ninny muggins' is both funny and endearing. Ferrell's physical timing is such that he somehow makes getting hit by a cab funny long after we've gotten used to seeing him in the streets of New York City in a silly green costume and his first experience with an escalator is priceless. I was still laughing into the next scene after Buddy answers his dad's office phone with 'Buddy the Elf - what's your favorite color?' Wouldn't it be just great if the Academy loosened up this year and recognized Ferrell's fine work with a nomination?
Ferrell is well supported, particularly by the luminous Deschanel who treats us to her fine singing voice not once, but twice. Unfortunately, the romantic subplot, as written by David Berenbaum (Disney’s upcoming "The Haunted Mansion"), strains credulity. James Caan is all impatient, New York bluster, neatly counterpointed by Asner's slightly crusty Santa ('Oh no, it's the Central Park Rangers' is a line Asner makes funnier that one would imagine). Steenburgen's brand of blurry sweetness is perfect for Walter's well-meaning wife Emily and Daniel Tay ("American Splendor") does a nice job of rejecting, then accepting his oversized stepbrother. In smaller roles, Faizon Love ("Wonderland") spins paranoia into his harried Gimbel's department manager and Peter Dinklage ("The Station Agent") does not appear as an elf.
Director Jon Favreau ("Made") hides the cliches in Berenbaum's script by playing up its eccentricities (Buddy's love of maple syrup is worked in a scene that may be homage to Dan Aykroyd's drunken Santa gross-out salmon bit in "Trading Places"). The forced perspective work used to make Ferrell bigger than Papa Elf Newhart is direly obvious, though, and production designer Rusty Smith's ("Austin Powers in Goldmember") North Pole is cheesy looking. That said, the tip of the hat to the 1964 Bass/Rankin television production of "Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer" with it's stop-motion animated animal characters and Leon, a snowman descendant of Burl Ives' Sam, is cunning. Mr. Narwhal's farewell to Buddy underlines the character's childlike nature. This is offset by the modern, more seamless effects used to show Santa's reindeer-powered sleigh flying about central Manhattan. There's something comforting about seeing such an old-fashioned image between two towering New York City buildings.
B+
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