When Will Ferrell first premiered on Saturday Night Live in the Fall of 1995, he appeared in a skit where he played a seemingly normal American dad who screams to his kids off-screen to “Get off the shed!” It wasn’t a funny skit. Ferrell had done this skit as his audition before the writers improved on it. The 21st season of SNL was a rough one after the massive exit of some of the more famous cast the previous season, which is considered one of the worst and the closest Lorne Michaels said he came to actually wanting to leave the show once and for all.
But Ferrell found his footing over the rest of the 1990s and made a name for himself. His “More Cowbell” skit is so revered that members of the Blue Oyster Cult said that people were coming up to them years later expressing their condolences for death of Gene Frenkle. However, there never has been a Frenkle, which was played by Ferrell. Like a lot of other SNL cast members, movies would be the next stop. Ferrell cut his teeth in supporting roles in Old School, Zoolander and Superstar before he had his leading role as Buddy Hobbs in Elf made him a superstar himself. However, much of what Ferrell was doing was just a version of that skit where he screams over and over with people thinking it’s funny.
But I’ve never really been a fan of this movie. Maybe it was because America was still suffering the effects of 9/11 from two years earlier they couldn’t see the forest for the trees. Much of Elf is set in New York City and production had begun in December of 2002. America was already involved in two wars, one in Afghanistan and the other in Iraq which despite what Americans had initially thought wasn’t going to be a cakewalk. Americans must’ve flocked to the theaters to see a movie that acted like 9/11 didn’t happen. Escapism is what movies are about. During the Great Depression, people who could barely eat flocked to theaters to see Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire dance in massive ballrooms.
But Elf is just a weird movie when you look at it closer. It begins with Buddy being an abandoned baby living in an orphanage where he’s placed in a crib on Christmas Eve by a loving nun. He sneaks away in the bag belong to Santa Claus (Ed Asner). Apparently, Santa doesn’t see you all the times if you’re sleeping or not. Naturally, Santa should’ve returned Buddy back to the orphanage where the nun is going to be facing an investigation, possibly criminal, on why there is a missing baby.
No, Santa and the rest of the elves decide to keep him. He’s adopted by Papa Elf (Bob Newhart) who raises him. This could’ve been a great set-up. But as he grows up is where it gets creepy. They all know Buddy isn’t a real elf. Despite this, they expect Buddy to conform to their ways, using smaller than normal showers/tubs and toilet seats. Apparently, they were able to make Buddy clothing that fits, but everything else is used to oppress him. Does Santa take a shit on a tiny toilet? Of course not.
So for about 30 years, Buddy has to be treated like he doesn’t belong at the North Pole. He’s constantly berated by the other elves because he’s not like them. When he can’t make toys as efficiently as the others, he’s regulated to a job that’s demeaning. Yet, no one seems to notice that Buddy is different and there’s no explanation for his mental status which clearly points to ADHD.
So for the first act of the movie what we’ve really watched is characters who are supoosed to spread holiday cheer taking great joy out of torturing a person for decades. Even Santa, who should understand Buddy’s different since he interacts with the world outside the North Pole, doesn’t show much sympathy. Instead, Santa really wants Buddy to leave and never come back. He tells Buddy his biological father is Walter Hobbs (James Caan), a grouchy man who works at a book publishing house in NYC.
Despite Buddy having no contact with the outside world, Santa and Papa Elf just allow Buddy to leave. They didn’t want him coming back. They knew it would be dangerous for Buddy. And in NYC, he’s just seen as another person who is nucking futs. He tracks down Walter who assumes he’s part of a singing telegram and then has his security bar him from the building.
Buddy is told to go to Gimbels where he is mistaken for a worker because of his elf costume. He becomes smitten with Jovie (Zooey Deschanel) in one of her most manic pixie dream girl roles. Jovie is a worker who is not too happy with Christmas spirit for no reason whatsoever. And in an odd scene, she showers at the employee locker-room while Buddy sings with her outside. So, now Buddy has gone full stalker harassing both Walter and Jovie.
He then loses it like a contestant on The Price is Right being told they’re about to play Plinko when the store manager, Wanda (Faizon Love), announces Santa will be arriving the next day. Wanda seems to be the only one who thinks Buddy might be cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs and there’s no reason for Buddy to go ballistic over anticipating someone he’s known for 30 years arriving less than a week after he last saw him. Also, didn’t anyone explain to Buddy the concept of department store Santas? Also, what department store would wait so late in the Christmas season to have a Santa finally appear?
Next, we get a scene of Buddy getting into an argument with the department store Santa (Artie Lange) for no other reason than plot convenience. Buddy is arrested and bailed out by Walter who realizes Buddy is probably his son but having a mental issue so for the convenience of the plot he takes him home where Walter’s wife, Emily (Mary Steenburgen) is just ok with it for…the convenience of the plot.
Even at 96 minutes with credits, this is a long movie that wears out its one-joke premise early. That might be why Jim Carrey walked away from it. Reportedly, the script by David Berenbaum was much darker before Jon Favreau, in his directorial debut, was allowed to do some rewrites. Maybe it’s because it’s Favreau’s first movie is why the movie feels uneven at times. It’s been rumored that Favreau used a copyright era in the Rankin/Bass production of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer to use some elements to reflect in the North Pole, but that’s a TV urban legend. The majority of the 1964 special is protected by copyright.
I think Buddy would’ve probably worked better as a TV special than a feature film. The second part of the movie just falls apart with poor writing and a stupid subplot in which Buddy mistakes Miles Finch (Peter Dinklage), a popular writer, for an elf. This results in another scene of Buddy getting into a fight with someone. If it happens one time, it’s ok. If it happens twice, it’s poor writing.
Also, the whole thing with Dinklage seems to be exactly what he said he refused to do in his early years as an actor. I guess he really needed bills to pay because he made the really offensive Tiptoes around the same time. And having Finch being a prima donna writer is a tired trope that stopped being funny by the end of the first season of The Larry Sanders Show.
As a comedy, this movie doesn’t work. But as a horror movie, it shows what years of oppression and neglect can do to a person. This was one of my late girlfriend’s favorite Christmas movies. And even though I loved her dearly and still do, I must admit, this movie isn’t that great as people have said. I like fun holiday movies, but not ones that push themselves on you like a parent telling you to eat your peas. The snowball-fight scene feels forced and serves no other purpose but just to be pretentious.
What do you think? Please comment.
Zane Says 