Needed More Time In The Workshop

Rating: 5/10 (7 September 2016)

Can a real Christmas movie get made in our cynical, charm-free 21st century? Probably not, if "Elf" is the best stab at it so far.
Up in the North Pole, Buddy the Elf (Will Ferrell) discovers he isn't an elf at all, but a displaced human orphan who found his way into Santa's bag at the end of a busy Christmas and was then raised in Santa's workshop. He undertakes to reconnect with his biological father, Walter Hobbs (James Caan), a gruff Manhattan executive who has found his way on Santa's naughty list.
Odd to step back in time and see Will Ferrell in this early starring role, playing so resolutely to PG sensibilities that he almost seems made of gingerbread. Unless you own Keebler stock or have an aversion to watching spaghetti being eaten with maple syrup, there's little here to offend you.
Alas, "Elf" is a film that thinks it's way cuter than it actually is. The idea of hearkening back to the stop-action TV Christmas shows I grew up with back in the 1970s is pleasant enough, and so is seeing NYC all dolled up for the holidays. But the story is a one-joke premise stretched well past its limit: Ferrell doing his man-child thing wearing an elf suit in the big city.
One sequence demonstrates for me the limited nature of the film. In it, a children's book author played by another future big star, Peter Dinklage, comes to Caan's publishing house office to help concept an idea. Buddy spots him and immediately calls to him as a fellow elf, thus sparking a WWF rumble in the conference room.
Sure, Dinklage is a little person and so the joke gets a bit of a laugh, but not anything to build deeper humor from. Why not, since we know Buddy is an overgrown kid, move past that and have the two get into a spirited disagreement about kiddie fiction, or what weather conditions are like on the North Pole? Instead, it's a short joke, some mayhem, and then cue the next scene.
The film has a lot of go-nowhere moments like that, whether it's Buddy getting mistaken for a store employee at Gimbel's or Buddy's stop-motion pals on the North Pole. Caan deserves credit for playing his part with a deft lightness I wasn't expecting, and indeed most of the supporting work is fun. I especially enjoyed Bob Newhart as an especially sedate elf who looks after Buddy.
There are also some funny bits for fans of Ferrell's wilder roles. Watching Buddy get into it with a department-store Santa (Artie Lange) who he accuses of being a fraud ("You sit on a throne of lies!") is good for a few laughs, even if it devolves into another rumble. Zooey Deschanel is sweet as Buddy's left-field romantic interest, and the ending actually manages to be rousing, shot as it was literally in the ashes of 9/11.
But manipulation is kind of at the heart of this film, both when it's working and when it's not. For all his evident good taste and desire to please, director Jon Favreau seems at a loss when it comes to finding that next gear and giving "Elf" a sense of wonder or of mission. It's pleasant and light, and often amusing, but still leaves you with the feeling of a misfit toy.