ACF#20 Elf!

 

Here’s another Christmas movie! The one hysterical comedy about Christmas of recent times (2003) and a “smarter than the average bear” treatment of the theme of all such stories: Christmas is imperiled! For once, we have a comic hero trying to get people to get Christmas right.

Will Ferrell in his funniest role squeals with delight and booms with outrage at something we ourselves would like to take so much pleasure in, Christmas. The lovely Zooey Deschanel plays the elf he falls in love with, James Caan the father he never knew, Bob Newhart his elf adoptive father, and Ed Asner as Santa Claus. There’s also a good supporting cast that might surprise you, including the now-famous Peter Dinklage, Andy Richter, Kyle Gass, and Amy Sedaris.

My friend Eric Cook and I talk about all the stuff the movie points to, even attracts attention to, but does not explain. The collapse of America’s civic religion in the ’60s-’70s is a big deal — that’s what the movie’s supposed to deal with. Family is not what it used to be, nor society. Christmas is tied up with family in America and organizes the hopes and pleasures of society around domesticity, but to a large extent, that’s now a fantasy of the ’50s.

The story does not lose hope, despite all this. It tries to find ways in which love leads to family. So it’s worth considering.

Here’s the other Christmas podcast I’ve done, with James Lileks, going through lots and lots of movies from the ’40s to another recent Christmas fairy tale, Arthur Christmas (2011).

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  1. Eustace C. Scrubb Member
    Eustace C. Scrubb
    @EustaceCScrubb

    Elf could have gone so very wrong, yet I agree it is a delight.

    • #1
  2. Percival Thatcher
    Percival
    @Percival

    Titus Techera: Will Ferrell in his funniest role …

    Groucho in his best dance number.

    • #2
  3. Titus Techera Contributor
    Titus Techera
    @TitusTechera

    Percival (View Comment):

    Titus Techera: Will Ferrell in his funniest role …

    Groucho in his best dance number.

    Hooray for Capt. Spaulding the African explorer…

    • #3
  4. Larry Koler Inactive
    Larry Koler
    @LarryKoler

    All ages of all groups of people seem to love this movie.

    I”m one of them. Fun from start to finish.

    • #4
  5. Titus Techera Contributor
    Titus Techera
    @TitusTechera

    Larry Koler (View Comment):
    All ages of all groups of people seem to love this movie.

    I”m one of them. Fun from start to finish.

    Yes. It makes you think what other things could be done…

    • #5
  6. Miffed White Male Member
    Miffed White Male
    @MiffedWhiteMale

    I liked Elf a lot when it first came out, but I find that it doesn’t hold up well to repeat viewings. I know I’m in a minority on this.

     

    • #6
  7. Valiuth Member
    Valiuth
    @Valiuth

    I do like Elf. It is a great Christmas movie, and I think what makes it great is that it goes full in on innocent joy. In that way it reminds me of Miracle on 34th Street. The heart of good Christmas movies is to make clear that the magic of the season is real, and to convince both the audience and the doubting characters in the movie of this fact by the end. If you aren’t singing along with everyone at the end of the movie to get Santa’s sleigh off the ground you are a Grinch.

    I wonder though can we think of Bad Christmas movies and what makes them bad? There are many cheap hallmark movies that are not so much bad as aggressively mediocre, but has there been a movie that was clearly a Christmas movie that failed utterly? You have issues like the curse of sequels with the Tim Allen Santa Clause movies, but the first one is a solid enough Christmas movie. You also have the live action How the Grinch Stole Christmas which was a travesty, but I think a large part of that is because they took a 30 minute story and stretched it out to 90 minutes.

     

    • #7
  8. Titus Techera Contributor
    Titus Techera
    @TitusTechera

    Miffed White Male (View Comment):
    I liked Elf a lot when it first came out, but I find that it doesn’t hold up well to repeat viewings. I know I’m in a minority on this.

    You’re in luck! Listen to the podcast, absorb the shock, review, & it’ll be as new!

    Happy Christmas!

    • #8
  9. Titus Techera Contributor
    Titus Techera
    @TitusTechera

    Valiuth (View Comment):

    Did you see the Arnold one?

    How do you think about movies like Home Alone, which is fairly fun & fairly well executed, but an utter catastrophe?

     

    • #9
  10. Valiuth Member
    Valiuth
    @Valiuth

    Titus Techera (View Comment):

    Valiuth (View Comment):

    Did you see the Arnold one?

    How do you think about movies like Home Alone, which is fairly fun & fairly well executed, but an utter catastrophe?

    Oh the Arnold one… now I’ve seen it but honest to God I don’t think I can remember a darn thing about it. Other than its title…

    Hm… Home Alone.  That is an interesting movie. Its not a bad movie and it certainly is Christmas themed, but is it an honest Christmas movie or is it more like Die Hard which is set at Christmas, but isn’t about Christmas. I think it is more the latter. Jingle All The Way is so mediocre it is utterly forgettable, thus it is beyond criticism. Home Alone is really more of a child power fantasy like Denis the Menace  or Problem Child. Christmas is the back drop because it serves to emphasize the theme of family, but it isn’t central to it. You could have set it at any time of the year. The heart of the movie is the realization that you love your family despite your frustrations with them.

    So to that end I’m not sure I would call Christmas Vacation an honest Christmas movie either, because it is only set at Christmas. As we saw with all the other Vacation movies the formula works regardless of whether the movie revolves around Christmas. Other movies or stories like A Christmas Carol, Miracle on 34th Street, Elf, How the Grinch Stole Christmas (cartoon) are directly about the holiday and it meaning in peoples lives. They involve the themes of family, too but they also seek to show that Christmas is a thing in and of itself separate from family and fun, but supportive of them nevertheless.

     

    • #10
  11. Titus Techera Contributor
    Titus Techera
    @TitusTechera

    So you’re on to something–Christmas movies really have to be about Christmas. Most are not, because apparently writers & studios are scared of the subject or blind to it. Can’t think of a story.

    I think you’re somewhat off the mark, however. There are movies about Christmas in America, which are in-between Christmas movies & movies that are set on Christmas for no obvious reason. I mean movies about what it’s like to have Christmas or to live through it.

    Worries about the end of the year & whether you get the bonus & all that couldn’t be set except at year’s end & they are tied up with the celebrations, although it might just be job worries, if you put it abstractly.

    Maybe family shenanigans are that way, too. Because lots of Americans don’t see their families otherwise.

    So maybe I’m thinking about sociology-of-Christmas stories rather than the Christmas faith. I think they could still be good.

    Then there are Christmas movies that are about the absence of Christmas–existential movies. Think about Bad Santa, an underrated movie… The Shane Black movies are all that way. When your life is screwed up, wife dead (Lethal weapon), wife cheating & girl hates you & you’re a deadbeat absend dad (Last boy scout), or a bum thief trying to get a kid a present (Kiss Kiss Bang Bang) or a loser abuser detective who’s an absent father because the wife’s dead or abandoned you (The nice guys)–this hits worst during Christmas. Lack of family is hardest to bear then & the desperate longings are the primary experience of Christmas.

    This is in some ways truer to Christ than would be a family Christmas. Redemption, after all, is personal, not familial (unless you’re a Mormon!) & you’re likelier to set your heart & treasure in heaven if you’re miserable than if you’ve a cozy domestic life you wish were always there…

    • #11
  12. Valiuth Member
    Valiuth
    @Valiuth

    Good points. Movies about the experience of Christmas are certainly a thing, and movies about people dealing with family, loss, and the general hustle and bustle of life can have these themes amplified and highlighted by being set at Christmas time. Though I wonder if other occasions don’t also work as well, like Thanksgiving. Throughout a year there are major celebrations that always help to draw out the contrasts in peoples lives.

    Ultimately the quality of the movie isn’t based on its setting or themes but on the ability of the movie makers (director, actors, writers, etc) to craft a compelling story. We know that even the most gripping and historically significant events can be made into a terrible movie (ie. Pearl Harbor).

    In summation I guess we have come to discover that there are movies about Christmas, and movies about people experiencing Christmas and the two while similar superficially I think are distinct enough to have their own categories. Then we must say that Christmas movie is a genus and not a species of movies.

    • #12
  13. Titus Techera Contributor
    Titus Techera
    @TitusTechera

    Maybe there are different aspects of Christmas. What seems the typical difference is whether the story has the character of a fairy tale.

    As for the other matter, I would go further & suggest that perhaps Hollywood is incapable of making movies about serious things.

    • #13
  14. Eustace C. Scrubb Member
    Eustace C. Scrubb
    @EustaceCScrubb

    @titustechera   Maybe there are different aspects of Christmas. What seems the typical difference is whether the story has the character of a fairy tale.

    In that case, Home Alone, is very much a Christmas film. Kevin wishes his family was gone and his wish comes true… Very much like George Bailey’s wish for a world without himself. Kevin is still a believer in Santa Claus and his talke with one of “Santa’s Helpers” is an important part of the story (“I know how these things work.”) Not as dramatic as Scrooge’s conversion, but Kevin becomes a believer in family (as his family comes to appreciate Kevin.)

    As for the spiritual side, church plays a role in the film.A single church plays a significant role in “Home Alone.”  (Actually, that one church is two churches: Trinity United Methodist of Wilmette, IL provides the exterior while Grace Episcopal Church of Oak Park, IL provides the interior. I guess it’s a Federated Church.)

    On Christmas Eve, Kevin is lonely and afraid. He goes back to the church, inside this time. He takes off his hat and studies the statues and stained glass. He then sees an old man, his neighbor. His older brother told him the neighbor was a mass murderer. But since they’re in church, Kevin allows the man to sit next to him.

    Kevin admits he’s feeling rotten. The neighbor tells him “This is the place to be if you’re feeling bad about yourself.” He also assures Kevin that “You’re always welcome at church.” Outside of his own home, church seems to be the one place in the film that Kevin seems to feel most secure.

    Even the “Wet Bandits” can be seen as a variation on the Christmas Punch and Judy shows of Dickens’ day. (Or as a foiling of the Grinches who would steal Christmas.)

    Of course, I’m the kind of troll who thinks Die Hard is a Christmas film, so what do I know?

    • #14
  15. Titus Techera Contributor
    Titus Techera
    @TitusTechera

    I was thinking the same thing about the fairy tale character of the story.

    The problem of course is that there’s no payoff, much less any effect to church. It’s not nothing, but it’s hard to get around the fact that the story basically encourages the desire to torture & kill that is part of man’s natural evil. It is a feast of cruelty set during the nativity of our Saviour.

    How charming Hollywood is…

    • #15
  16. Percival Thatcher
    Percival
    @Percival

    You people are all goofy. The ultimate Christmas movie is We’re No Angels — the 1955 one, not that abomination with De Niro and Penn.

    • #16
  17. Titus Techera Contributor
    Titus Techera
    @TitusTechera

    That’s a sweet movie! I also recommend it!

    • #17
  18. CB Toder aka Mama Toad Member
    CB Toder aka Mama Toad
    @CBToderakaMamaToad

    I will confess that I have not seen Elf, but your recommendation makes me desire to see it over this coming Christmas holiday.

    I will further confess that my sister’s enthusiastic recommendation in previous years had actually put me off wanting to see the movie… we siblings can be so ornery. Sorry, sister!

    • #18
  19. Titus Techera Contributor
    Titus Techera
    @TitusTechera

    All is forgiven, I bet! It’s very funny, entirely appropriate for the kids. The more I think about the comedy, the more I think it’s an inadvertent show of what crusading love is. The protagonist is indomitably loving…

    • #19
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