A Funny Holiday Film

Rating: 5/10 (24 March 2007)

Elf is fun, but flawed no matter which way you look at it
Plot: When he was a baby, Buddy (Will Ferrell) accidentally crawls into Santa's bag one Christmas Eve. Flash forward a couple of years and Buddy is now an adult. He has been raised as a elf and nobody has ever told him he is human. Buddy is constantly worrying about belonging to the elf's, but can't seem to do anything right. One day his elf dad (Bob Newhart) tells him the truth and Santa (Edward Answer) sends him to New York City to find his dad, Walter Hobbs (James Caan). He learns his dad has lost his Christmas faith and is mean and bossy. He goes to live with his wife, Emily (Mary Steenburgen) and her son, Michael (Daniel Tay). He gets a job at Gimbel's and falls in love with Jovie (Zooey Deschanel). Promlems arise as kids across the world are starting to lose their Christmas faith.
The Good News: This film actually made me laugh hysterically and not just once, probably about seven times. The two biggest laughs are when Buddy wanders into the women's section at the mall and spots a tight see-through red shoulder strap shirt and the sign next to it reads, For Someone Special, so Buddy sends it to his dad and the other big laugh is also in the mall where Buddy walks up to a lady holding a perfume bottle and Buddy tries it out, only he sprays it in his mouth. The slew of great actors and actresses are great in their roles, but there is not a lot to comment on about them except they get the job done. There is very little else to like here except for a few sporadic scenes, but they are placed to far apart for it to be worthwhile. New Line Cineama provides this film with their infinifilm special features which deserves special mention because the features are shorter and more entertaining than the entire movie together! The main highlight is the commentary provided by director Jon Favreau and actor Will Ferrell. They share nifty little tide-bits about making the film and they make it easier to sit through.
The Bad News: The biggest problem is the pacing, the film is ninety-five minutes long and they could have shortened it to about an hour. I'm not a big fan of Will Ferrell, but I do realize he has acting skills and to me he looked like he was bored and wanted to collect a paycheck as soon as possible. A lot of the characters should have been thrown out for their uselessness. Most scenes feel contrived as if they dug it out of a hole in the ground such as the mail scene. What in the world? Although there are laughs some jokes fall flat on their faces and are not funny at all. The script by David Berenbaum and the direction by Jon Favreau suffers a lot and feels choppy and hackneyed. Through most of the running time the film is a complete bore and it is pretty hard to sit through. The awful costumes for the elf's is just well what can you say except awful. It's hard to digest the colors together and to have to see one character run around in the same outfit for the entire running time which is hideous doesn't add to the film at all. One of the most important elements in a film like this is to believe in the make believe world, but here you don't believe at all and it doesn't help that the special effects are really bad and it can get distracting. The relationship between Buddy and Jovie is really tacky and comes almost as an after thought.
Conclusion: Most of the jokes are good and there are enough good things to not declare it a total waste, but according to me... Not Recommended
Rated: PG for some mild rude humor and language