Image courtesy of impawards.com
Director:
David Dobkin
Cast:
Vince Vaughn……….Fred Claus
Paul Giamatti……….Nick ‘Santa’ Claus
John Michael Higgins……….Willie
Miranda Richardson……….Annette Claus
Rachel Weisz……….Wanda
Kathy Bates……….Mother Claus
Trevor Peacock……….Papa Claus
Ludacris……….DJ Donnie (as Chris ‘Ludacris’ Bridges)
Elizabeth Banks……….Charlene
Christian Hansen……….Fireman
Kevin Spacey……….Clyde
Bobb’e J. Thompson……….Slam
Allan Corduner……….Dr. Goldfarb
Virtually any Christmas-themed allegory could properly illustrate the agenda of Fred Claus. Like a Christmas tree, it is nice during the holidays, but after December, it is quickly discarded and forgotten. Like a present, Fred Claus looks great on the outside, but one’s enjoyment of that which is inside the wrapping may vary. Like a turkey feast, it leaves you feeling full, but soon you will be hungry again for more of the same. Get the idea? Like most Christmas movies Fred Claus is afraid viewers might miss the point, so prepare to be further beaten over the head with it upon viewing this tale of Nicolas Claus’ disgruntled older brother.
As if the litany of Christmas clichés weren’t enough, audiences are also asked to deal with Vince Vaughn’s aging shtick. But much like Christmas movies themselves, Vaughn’s routine is a comfort food that many don’t mind eating once in a while. Ironically, two tired tastes are combined to make a decent iteration of an old flavor. Yet the makers of Fred Claus squander the opportunity to make something great and instead opt for a sort of Elf rehash. In fact, the film looks a lot like a Christmas movie made after the filmmakers decided they wanted to make all the wrong decisions.
Fred Claus is a perfectly cast, aesthetically pleasing, and calculated misfire. Take Paul Giamatti as Santa Claus, brilliant right? Better still when one witnesses the chemistry between him and Vaughn, but their encounters are too few and intermeshed with too many other plots. Fred hates Santa but is forced to visit the North Pole after Santa bails Fred out from prison and then is coaxed into loaning Fred more money for a business venture that will likely fail. Fred is an aimless deadbeat jaded by living in his little brother’s shadow for years. There is plenty of comedy to be mined from that simple plot, but screenwriters Dan Fogelman and Jessie Nelson feel the need to insert Kevin Spacey as an evil efficiency expert sent to observe Kris Kringle’s operations.
While the addition of Spacey is a pleasant surprise, his presence feels forced and tedious. His involvement diminishes the enjoyment of watching Fred and Santa harass each other. When Fred derails the work of the elves on more than one occasion it begins to seem malicious rather than self-indulgent, which is no fun. Furthermore it sets up for Fred to save the day after Santa gets shut down on Christmas Eve. To be upset with a film like Fred Claus for being contrived is naïve, but why not choose a more organic for these estranged brothers to reconnect? And what is with the failure to address what an awful parent Mother Claus (Kathy Bates) is?
These questions would be worth further inspection if Fred Claus aspired to be anything more than a piece of Christmas commercialism. But around the time Fred is delivering presents to every single child on earth with the unlikely help of Spacey’s efficiency expert who is shown the error of his ways by the injured Santa as “Silent Night” swells in the background, Fred Claus has cycled through every trick available. It may bring a tear to one’s eye, but that tear is met with some feelings of guilt and cynicism. We should not feel obligated to feel emotional at these all too familiar scenes of “Christmas spirit”.
But like that tree, that present, that meal, Fred Claus triggers the expected response in its consumers because Christmas movies are as deeply embedded into our culture’s holiday traditions as singing carols and hanging stockings on the mantle. Thus, it is safer for Fred Claus to be bland and predictable rather than being something uniquely satisfying.
