Film
Elf
- Director
- Jon Favreau
- Certificate
- PG
- Running Time
- 96 mins
On paper this looked interesting enough. Directed by Jon Favreau, hot from Swingers, who brought together James Caan and Will Ferrell, it promised a mild subversion of traditional festive fare. What it delivers is a dog’s breakfast that remains mystifyingly popular, the most insulting element of which is an attempt to seize the anti-commercial moral high ground while still finding room for prominent product placement of such brands as Etch-A-Sketch and Coca Cola.
The story begins with Santa (Ed Asner) inadvertently carrying an orphaned baby back to the North Pole. Nobody thinks to call the social services when this beardy gent with a penchant for loitering in children’s bedrooms decides that the abducted sprog should be raised by ageing, single, childless Papa Elf (Bob Newhart). Little wonder the kid grows up to become befuddled Buddy (Will Ferrell), the largest little person in Santa’s workshop, who eventually sets off for New York to track down his unwitting real dad, Scrooge-like publisher Walter (James Caan).
As candy-loving Buddy, Ferrell gets to do much romping in the style of Tom Hanks in Big with a gargantuan sugar rush. Although there are a couple of funny scenes (Buddy denouncing a fake department store Santa and insulting a touchy person of restricted growth with his cheery elfish greeting), he’s mostly so irritating that you sit there wishing Caan would whack him Corleone-style rather than surrendering to the inevitable last-reel sentimental uplift.
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