A Movie To Leave You Bored For The Holidays
What is wrong with this picture: Vince Vaughn and Paul Giamatti in a family film about Santa Claus and his older, meaner brother, Fred? Well, you take out the family part of the sentence, make Neil LaButte the screenwriter and you’ve got something. But add in elves, the director of Wedding Crashers, and more pratfalls than a Charlie Chaplin film, now you have a recipe for disaster. And that is what Fred Claus is.
The movie starts off with one of the worst openings ever. It is the 16th Century. We find out that the arrival of Nicholas to the Claus family has made life hard for his older brother Fred. Their mother (Kathy Bates) from the start shows favor towards her younger “perfect” son. And then Nick becomes a saint, which comes with a clause (har-har) of it’s own that they come with immortality, but not just him, his entire family as well. Does this play at all into the rest of the film? Do we ever get a joke about Christmas during the Revolution? Nope.
We’re suddenly brought to present-day Chicago where Fred is now Vince Vaughn and he’s a Repo guy with dreams of becoming a bookie. The best scene in the film comes when he squares off with a little girl on how her belief in Santa could destroy her life. But when a ridiculous scheme gets him involved in a 100 Sidewalk Santa Brawl, he’s put behind bars. To get him out of trouble, he calls his little brother Santa (now Giamatti) to get him out. But Santa has decided to take the initiative and use this to help get his brother squared around. He brings him up north to help with the holiday. But this laurel leaf is quickly put the test when Fred starts causing trouble for the elves, letting his mouth get the best of him, and general smart-alleck behavior. And this year, Santa doesn’t have a lot of room available to shenanigans when an efficiency expert (Kevin Spacey) is brought in to shut down the joint. By Fred’s side is Santa’s top elf (John Michael Higgins getting the hobbit treatment) and on his mind is his on-again-off-again girlfriend (Rachel Weitz) as he bumbles his way into saving Christmas.
I have to wonder if Fred Claus was meant to be something more adult like Bad Santa only good. If you look at the core dynamics of what the characters represent, the actors in those parts, I’m starting to see drastic changes being made to make it a generic holiday movie that’s more about goofy pratfalls than verbal wit. There’s a scene that was begging to be in the movie after Santa puts Fred in charge of Naughty and Nice. It would have Fred defending his decision to Nice a bad kid (“The other kid had it coming…”). There are some scenes which should have worked but don’t like in-joke called Sibling’s Anonymous. As if any kid is going to know whom Frank Stallone is.
Again, whoever cast this movie was looking at the wrong script. Here you have some of the most edgy actors in film today basically playing with the kiddies. What’s next: the cast of Jackass performing A Christmas Carol? The reason you get Vince Vaughn is for his mouth. When he’s talking, he’s great! The problem is that the film doesn’t have him talking so much as he is taking pratfalls. Giamatti just cannot play one-dimensional characters and watching him do so is painful to watch. And then there are the supporting actors like Rachel Weitz, who really doesn’t even belong in the feature, not to mention the great misuse of Kathy Bates.
Did I mention that I hated the first fifteen minutes? Director David Dobkin has always had a problem with prioritizing what matters in the films he creates. This is no exception. I’m getting really tired with directors who think anything can be funny if you put some sort of prop or silly action into it. He again misuses his resources and comes to the wrong conclusion as to what his movie is about. But I don’t think he makes movies to be thoughtful or smart. He thinks the same fart joke is funny the hundredth time around. Unfortunately, enough people go to see the movie that they let him make another fart joke.
All in all, this is nothing more than just another holiday flick meant to make a little money and do nothing more. I would have to say that if you can’t find a better holiday movie this year, you’re not looking hard enough.