Review: Elf (2003)

Elf (2003)

Rated PG for some mild rude humor and language

Score: 3 out of 5

Elf is the kind of Christmas movie that you'd think was made in 1983 or even 1963, not 2003. It's a straightforward throwback to the Rankin/Bass Christmas specials of the '60s and '70s, with a plot largely devoid of crude humor... starring Will Ferrell at a time when he and the rest of the "Frat Pack" of gleefully lowbrow comedy stars and writers were pushing boundaries with a new breed of decidedly grown-up sex comedies. Director Jon Favreau consciously toned down the original PG-13 script into something a lot more lighthearted and family-friendly once he got on board, at times to a fault (and to Ferrell's frustration on set), but it ultimately worked out in the end to produce a film that a lot of people of my generation regard as a comedy classic and one of their favorite unironic holiday movies (i.e. not something like Die Hard or Bad Santa, the latter of which came out the same year as this). As someone who missed the film when it first came out and only saw it recently, I don't quite have the same attachment to it, but I definitely see where the affection comes from. There's barely much of a plot, but what it has is ultimately enough, the film being largely the kind of "sketch movie" that's about dropping unusual characters into funny situations and seeing how they react. I had a very nice time watching it, thanks to both Ferrell's performance as the titular elf and an old-fashioned sense of humor that's not afraid of getting cornball and doesn't try to pretend it's anything other than what it is, and while it did feel kind of insubstantial, it's still a film I'd happily recommend around the holiday season.

Our protagonist Buddy is a human who, as an infant, accidentally snuck into Santa Claus' sack when Santa visited his orphanage on the night of Christmas Eve. Growing up at the North Pole, he's always known he was different from the other elves: he's much bigger, for one, and he aged into an adult far faster. One day, he finally learns the truth about his ancestry and realizes why all the other elves made fun of him, which marks the beginning of a journey to New York City to find the birth father who abandoned him, Walter Hobbs, now an executive at a children's book publisher and, by all appearances, a right jerk who values money over his family and even the quality of his company's books.

If you've ever seen a heartwarming holiday special, then you don't need me to tell you where this movie's going from there, and this movie knows it. It devotes fairly little time to its story, instead concerning itself with its jokes and its comic routines, most of which revolve around Buddy, played by Ferrell as essentially a young boy in the body of a grown man, interacting with the modern world and causing chaos wherever he goes. He's not completely helpless, shown to be a surprisingly gifted handyman thanks to his experience in Santa's workshop (where do you think all the toys under your tree as a kid came from? Your parents? China?), but he's otherwise a less shouty, more family-friendly take on the archetypal Ferrell manchild character, with the emphasis here placed on the "child" thanks to him having been raised in a candy-cane, primary-colored version of the North Pole straight out of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (complete with a cameo by Ray Harryhausen voicing a stop-motion polar bear). And honestly, Ferrell was perfect in the role. There's a reason this kind of character has been his type as a comic actor, and that's because he brings exactly the kind of energy that a movie like this needs. There's just something inherently funny about a grown man dressed as a Christmas elf, but Ferrell doesn't just rest on the premise here, he gives it his all and always makes me smile.

The cast here is large and sprawling, and some of them get more to grab onto than others. James Caan as Walter is the closest thing a movie this wholesome has to an antagonistic force, and while his arc of realizing that there's more to life than getting ahead in the cutthroat corporate world is predictable, he otherwise sells it admirably. The first act at the North Pole is filled with memorable presences like Ed Asner as a Santa straight out of an old Coca-Cola commercial and Bob Newhart as Buddy's adoptive elf father, as well as great set design that makes for a very sharp contrast to the rest of the film spent in the Big Apple. Peter Dinklage only has one scene as a full-of-himself children's author, but the moment he steps foot on screen, you can figure out immediately what the casting directors of Game of Thrones saw in him. Unfortunately, I thought that Zooey Deschanel got short shrift as the cynical department store clerk Jovie, feeling as though a lot of her character arc was left on the cutting room floor. She gets a lot of focus in a few particular scenes and sells them very well, especially when it comes to her singing voice, but she's otherwise absent for such long stretches that I was at times surprised when the film remembered that she existed. (It was amusing, however, seeing her play the grouch who doesn't believe in Christmas and has Ferrell's manic pixie dream guy inject some excitement into her life given how she'd later be typecast. Especially since she's blonde in this film, without what would become her signature bangs.)

This was a symptom of the film's biggest fault, the manner in which the plot jumps all over the place, from Buddy's relationship with his father Walter to his romance with Jovie to Walter's problems at work and home to a sudden third-act turn into Buddy having to literally save Christmas. It's very scattershot, and while I was often amused, I wouldn't say I was particularly hooked by the film's story, threadbare as it was. At times, I wonder if Ferrell might have had a point in wanting this to be a somewhat darker movie than what we ultimately got, one that spent more time with its characters and gave them room to breathe between all the jokes. The 2000s were a time when comedies weren't afraid to slow down, and when Pixar was in its golden age of animated family comedies that nevertheless threw a lot of kids my age for a loop. I think a version of this movie that's ten to fifteen minutes longer, mostly devoted to character beats and interactions, might have left more of an impact on me.

The Bottom Line

At the end of the day, though, Elf is still a very funny movie with Will Ferrell doing what he does best, one that I don't think would've endured as it has if it hadn't been as lightweight as it is. Overall, I had a very good time watching it, and whenever I have kids, I guarantee this one's gonna be in rotation every December.