Ryan McNeil
I’m a hard sell when it comes to Christmas movies. For the most part, I find that many new holiday-centered films that are made are re-hashes of either IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE or A CHRISTMAS CAROL. If the film doesn’t fall into one of those categories, then it’s likely the umpteenth time the audience is subjected to the commercialism of the holiday season, or how dysfunctional families somehow manage to get their act together. With that said, I think there are still a few Christmas stories left to be told. In recent years, I’ve felt that ELF and THE POLAR EXPRESS were both worthy additions to the genre, but only because they seemed to have a tenderness to them that a movie like JINGLE ALL THE WAY was missing. It’s difficult to explain what makes one movie jingle my bells, while another tastes like last year’ eggnog. Perhaps the most important factor, is that there’s a fine line between sweet and silly. And standing right on that line is FRED CLAUS.
FRED CLAUS stars Paul Giamatti as Jolly ol‘ Saint Nick, and Vince Vaughn as his older brother Fred. As the movie begins, we learn that Fred had a tough time living in his brother’s shadow. He tried to be a good kid, but when your sibling is a saint-in-waiting whose every idea is one of generosity, merriment, and selflessness it gets difficult to keep up. Frustration turns to bitterness, and as they become adults Fred becomes estranged and wants nothing to do with his brother Santa’s Christmas racket. However, one December he finds himself in prison with nowhere to turn, so in desperation, he turns to his brother for help. Santa tells him he’ll send his bail, and even more money on top, only if Fred comes to The North Pole to help with Christmas preparations. Once Fred accepts, all hell breaks loose.
In FRED CLAUS, Vince Vaughn is playing the same character he’s been playing since SWINGERS – the fast-talking know-it-all who can ramble his way in and out of any situation with a charming smile. He spends a lot of the film in the company of elves, but these scenes are a bit of a tough sell since they feel like moments I’ve seen before in movies like ELF and THE SANTA CLAUSE films. Even his role as an underachiever who fights with cleaning up his act felt like a direct rip from his recent part in THE BREAK-UP.
Whenever Vince isn’t distracting the audience with his own brand of slapstick, there’s Kevin Spacey to deal with. Spacey plays Clyde Northwood, an efficiency expert sent by “Corporate” to assess Santa’s entire operation. For starters, the angle of The North Pole being a corporate subdivision was a little tough to swallow…sure, I’d often wondered about the logistics of producing so many gifts and paying so many workers, but I never once would have believed that an entity like Santa Claus could be a corporate subsidiary.
Spacey plays the stereotypical Grinch/Scrooge…the person with some deep-seeded hatred of Christmas out to bring the whole thing down. While he gets one good moment with Fred, where he outlines the nature of growing up in a shadow, most of his part is unnecessarily evil. (Slight side note – Northwood and Santa have a conversation about a gift he never got for Christmas as a child, despite dearly wanting it. A recent role of Spacey’s makes this gift a bit of a head-scratcher). So I’m well on my way to giving this film a place on the “Naughty” list, right? Not so fast.
While it may be flawed, the film actually does have a great point at the root of it. When he gets to The North Pole, Fred’s given the job of looking over the files with all the incoming letters from children. It’s up to him to decide who has been naughty and who has been nice (he even gets a fancy snow-globe surveillance gizmo to help him look in on the cases that are too close to call). At first Fred does the task straight-up, dutifully doing as he’s told. Then, in an act of defiance, he begins to process all the naughty cases as nice. This of course creates more work for the toy-making elves, which nearly shuts the whole operation down…but it gives the movie a chance to say something about what we’ve grown to believe.
The myth goes that if you’re a naughty child, that you won’t get anything for Christmas, but how fair is that? Fred says it best that some of these “naughty” children are just upset, some of them are troubled, and some of them have been dealt a really poor hand by life. How fair is it to these children, that on top of their lousy lot in life, that they can’t even look forward to one package with their name on it on Christmas morning? Fred goes to bat for these children, because deep down, he can see a lot of himself in them. He reminds us that this old notion of “be good or no presents” is a really hard line, and that good or bad – every kid deserves a present on Christmas.
So is FRED CLAUS a good movie? No…but it’s not exactly a bad movie either. It felt like it tried to follow in the footsteps of ELF, but it doesn’t get nearly that charming. If you were standing in front on the theatre with your money in hand looking to treat yourself for two hours, this movie would hardly be my first recommendation. However, if you found yourself wanting to watch something seasonal…something to make you feel like a kid for a while, and stir up your memories of Santa Claus and trying to be a good kid so you might get that shiny something special, then lay your money down, grab a hot chocolate and some cookies, and let yourself be a kid again for a couple hours.