Will Ferrell completely steals every scene

Rating: 7/10 (27 November 2011)

Although it stands on its own, without the man, as an old-fashioned festive comedy with a good heart, Will Ferrell still completely steals every scene. He completely carries Elf, giving a charming performance with one foot in the spirit of Christmas and the other in cruel reality.
He plays a human named Buddy who is accidentally brought back by Santa (Edward Asner, better known as Carl Fredrickson in the Pixar film Up) from an adoption centre one Christmas. He is then raised by Bob Newhart as a Christmas elf, from childhood until adulthood. Though naturally, being a human means Buddy can stand out from the crowd a teensy bit.
When Buddy discovers he is a human, he sets out to Manhattan to find his natural father (James Caan). Things don't go too well when Caan turns out to be a bit of an arsehole. And from then on it's a father-son story, with a love interest thrown in for good measure and the natural Christmas spirit sprinkled on like sugar through-out.
But unless you're 6 or younger, you'll probably notice that the story doesn't really matter. As stated before, it's all Will Ferrell's movie, and he welcomely never stops chewing the scenery. He's terrifically funny while also never forgetting he's in a Christmas movie. What's great is that we all can tell Ferrell is aware his character is ignorant of the cruel reality of present-day Manhattan (which sets up some very funny routines), and he does the very best he can with the material, in a truly hilarious performance.
As for the other actors, they do their job. None of them really shine, but they all give satisfactory performances, and every one of them generously lets Ferrell steal each scene he's in. The scenes without Ferrell are rather tedious at times (particularly the scenes with Caan working in his office, which are likely to make children fast-forward to Buddy 's next scene), but they keep the story moving along.
The only major complaint is the ending, which for me is far too cheesy. Apart from one amusing send-up of the Patterson-Gimlin Bigfoot film, there are barely any jokes in the third act. It's the bit which revolves around "pure Christmas spirit", and this would have been absolutely fine with me if it wasn't such a sudden change of tone for the film. Going from funny comedy to sugary Christmas schmaltz in the space of two minutes is, for me, a bit of a letdown, but the Christmassy feeling is there so it's not a massive complaint.
Overall, Elf is a delightful seasonal comedy which has the Christmas spirit while also benefiting greatly from Ferrell's very funny performance. It may not be brilliant, but with its golden-oldies soundtrack and all-around festive feel, I hope it'll be recognised as a holiday classic in decades to come.