Fun Christmas Movie!

Rating: Null/10 (28 February 2014)

I'm not a huge fan of Will Ferrell but I really enjoyed Elf! My family watches it every Christmas and we still laugh every year. Will Ferrell plays Buddy the Elf - really he is a human baby who has been raised at the North Pole. Ferrell is great as an innocent man-child with a heart of gold who loves Christmas way, way too much.
My dad and I have always both loved Bob Newhart and he is great as the head elf who has raised Buddy all these years without telling him the terrible truth, but now that he's older and frustrated that he's not as handy as the other elves, he tells Buddy the truth and he goes to New York City to find his biological father. James Caan plays a mean, materialistic dad who cares only about his work, and Mary Steenbergen is fantastic as always as Caan's wife who makes him accept Buddy into their home. When Buddy falls into a job at a department store he meets his romantic interest, Zooey Deschannel, who is predictably funny as usual but surprisingly (at least to me) also is a great singer!
Through the story, Buddy struggles to get Caan to accept him as his son, and to deal with living in the much less friendly and more complicated human world. On top of that he has to get Deschannel to see past his bizarre behaviour and get her to fall for him. Plus, there just might be a huge Christmas Eve disaster that only Buddy can help Santa solve.
It's quite family friendly and a very fun and refreshing Christmas movie with some great laughs. Peter Dinklage's small part as a full of himself children's book author also has a great payoff. If you're a fan of Christmas movies or comedies in general, Elf is worth checking out.