Movie Title: Elf

Movie Title: Elf
Rating: 8
Reviewed By: Michael Stevens

Review:

Will Ferrell is one funny guy, but also one really irreverent guy. And mixing the two with our treasured holiday of Christmas could create a very volatile situation. Well, relax. Everything turns out just fine, and the image of Santa Claus stays intact.

As you might have seen in the advertising, Will Ferrell (Old School) plays a human that ends up being raised by elves at the North Pole. Ferrell is Buddy, who until about the age of 30 thinks he is a rather large and awkward elf. Then the person he has known as father, Papa Elf (Bob Newhart, Legally Blonde 2), explains how Buddy made it to the North Pole, and tells him who his real father is and where he lives. Soon after this Papa Elf, Santa (Edward Asner, The Animal), all the elves, and a bunch of animals bid farewell to Buddy as he heads off to the Big Apple and his real father. So through the Arctic wilderness and the seven layers of the gumdrop forest Buddy hikes, and suddenly he emerges from the either Holland or Lincoln tunnels into Manhattan. This place is exciting and new, so Buddy goes wild, Elf Gone Wild style, and lives it up with such antics as repeatedly spinning around and around in revolving doors, repeatedly taking fliers from those annoying people that hand them out on the street, and cheerfully walking into the street only to be hit by a cab. Once he tires of this, it is off to the Empire State Building to meet his real father, book publisher Walter (James Caan, Mickey Blue Eyes). Walter is not thrilled to see this tall man in tights, and just thinks he is crazy until he has a paternity test done that proves Buddy is his son. Meanwhile, Buddy ends up at a different North Pole, a fake one inside Gimbel’s department store (think Macy’s) where he kind of fits in. There he meets a cute but shy girl named Jovie (Zooey Deschanel, Abandon), and he quickly falls for her, but could she ever love this strange man? And will Walter ever take the time and become a good person and accept Buddy into his family? And, finally, will Buddy ever eat anything without putting syrup on it?

Elf is a wonderfully thought out and directed movie. David Berenbaum gets credit for writing it, and Jon Favreau receives credit for directing the film. Some others in the film worth mentioning are Daniel Tay, Mary Steenburgen, Peter Dinklage, Andy Richter, Michael Lerner, Kyle Gass, Amy Sedaris, Faizon Love, and Claire Lautier.

I don’t know if any other actor could have pulled off the role of Buddy other than Ferrell, and Ferrell is this character. It’s just a perfect fit. Then the other casting decisions of Ed Asner and Bob Newhart are just classic. Elf is funny, at points touching, and it actually celebrates Christmas, not mocking it as I thought it would judging from the trailers. It is a good and hilarious movie, with a few slow parts, but overall gets eight couches out of ten.

Bye.