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Did you know Santa Claus had a brother? A big brother named Fred to be precise. But Fred has always lived in the shadow of his younger sibling who would grow up to be the very model of giving. Fred has gone the other way and makes his living as a repo man. But when he finds himself in jail, the only one that can bail him out is Nick. And he does so on the understanding that his big brother will work at the North Pole in the run-up to Christmas. So Fred heads north where his rabble-rousing ways jeopardise Santa's workshop as a nasty bureaucrat is looking for a reason to shut it down.
As director David Dobkin previously helmed "Wedding Crashers" I was expecting something sharper than your usual family Christmas movie. But this film wasn't all I hoped. It's fine when Vince Vaughn is being allowed to run off at the mouth, but the rest of the movie can't keep up with that frenetic pace. The combination of gags and slapstick doesn't work because Dobkin's timing is slightly off. He lets the visual comedy run on too long so it runs out of steam and there isn't enough verbal comedy to plug the gaps. The slapstick isn't harsh enough to have a real ouch factor and the actors' reactions to it are too big, making it feel laboured. And the montage of Fred hopping down chimneys and causing casual destruction is obvious. However, there are some nicely observed scenes like Fred talking to a child as he repossesses her giant TV and one that takes place in a self-help group for disaffected siblings that include Frank Stallone, Roger Clinton and Stephen Baldwin. But book-ending the film with voiceover narration doesn't quite work. It suits the fairytale opening, but we receive epilogues for too many characters come the end, some of whom haven't featured in the story.
There are some problems visually too - Dobkin hasn't created
a sufficiently distinct style. So the Claus' brothers' childhood has a cartoonish quality thanks to the odd curvy fairytale design of their childhood home and the addition of a CGI bluebird. But this sits at odds with modern-day New York, where Fred lives and the traditional visualisation of the North Pole. The effects work isn't strong enough either. The majority of lead elves are played by average sized adults with their heads digitally grafted onto dwarf actors' bodies, but you can see the join quite clearly. There's also an elf stampede where the participants are obviously digital and many of the bearded elves are played by women with fake facial hair. The flying sleigh doesn't quite gel with the backgrounds and Paul Giamatti's padding looks fake because it moves with his clothes and not his body.
The screenplay by Dan Fogelman and Jessie Nelson is uneven. The pacing suffers as a result of the combination of jokes and sentiment - the subplot involving a lovelorn elf slows everything right down. Fred's crumbling relationship with his girlfriend is introduced and then sidelined early on so you don't feel involved. The writers hit the moral "there are no naughty children" too hard, so you feel like you're being bludgeoned with it. There's never any doubt there will be a cheery resolution to everything. You know Nick and Fred will make up, that Willie the elf will get the girl and of course Christmas will be saved because the writing is so transparent. It's about fifteen minutes too long at a hundred and sixteen minutes because of the struggle to tie up all the loose ends so everyone can get their happy ending. The gag ratio isn't high enough; there simply aren't enough jokes to fill the running time and what few there are tend to be rather obvious attempts at slapstick. There's no character comedy to speak of, unless you count references to Santa's comfort eating.
The relationship between the two central characters is well-developed, opening the film with a childhood flashback. But this is at the expense of the other players, who are left short of anything to do and in some cases, even a personality. Clyde Nortchut is a standard family movie villain, Santa's wife Annette the usual waspish wife, the boys' parents are little more than glorified extras and Willie the elf is a plot device to show that Fred is really a good guy. The dialogue has its moments, usually when Fred is allowed to run off at the mouth, but I get the impression these chunks were improvised by Vince Vaughn instead of being written by Fogelman and Nelson. Otherwise everything's rather too black and white and the use of "What the heck?!?" over more obvious phrases stands out for being so bland.
As Fred, Vince Vaughn is back to his motor-mouth ways and his usual frustrated angry man schtick. So he spends most of the movie wound tighter than a clock. He plays the slapstick stooge well enough, taking pies in the face with aplomb. But it always feels like he's playing a part. Paul Giamatti plays Saint Nick as a slightly neurotic apologist who comfort eats his way through his problems. He's jolly and innocent enough to fit the part, but what a shame his fake padding is so obvious and there isn't quite enough feeling behind his troubled relationship with his on-screen brother.
Kevin Spacey is all bark and no bite as nasty auditor Clyde Northcut. He's humourless, nebbish, mean, malignant and snappy but there's no depth to his performance. Miranda Richardson puts on her sour face as Nick's disapproving wife Annette. She handles the sarcasm of the part well, but there's little more than a stern demeanour and constantly pursed lips to the role. The character is under-written, so it's hard to see why she and Santa would have got together in the first place. As Fred's long-suffering girlfriend Wanda, Rachael Weisz does possibly the worst British accent by a British person ever. For some reason she's tried to do Cockney in the style of Dick Van Dyke. She has trouble with the comedic requirements of the role so her performance feels laboured. Oscar winner Kathy Bates is wasted in her role as the boys' mother, but at least she gets some lines, unlike Papa Claus, played by Trevor Peacock who is no more than a glorified extra.
The original music by Christophe Beck has more emotional depth than the rest of the film. He pushes the audience's buttons with warm arrangements featuring chimes, woodwinds, flutes and strings to set up the boys' childhood. This is undercut by sad chiming piano for Fred feeling unappreciated. Santa's workshop is underlined by big warm brass and strings. The tone shifts with creepy string and piano motifs for Fred being undermined and minor key piano with distorted chimes and sawing strings for Clyde. When the inevitable rescue is imminent we switch back to hopeful xylophone, violins and acoustic guitar. As a score it works though without the context of the film it would feel bland. The soundtrack sticks to tried and tested Christmas favourites like "Jingle Bells", "Sleigh Ride", "Here Comes Santa Claus", "Santa Claus is Coming to Town", "Let It Snow" and "Silent Night". The only slightly unexpected track is "Rubbernecking" which accompanies a bout of elf moshing.
"Fred Claus" is a so-so Christmas family film that doesn't make enough of its stars or the central conceit. There are some funny moments for grown-ups, but it's more of a film for kids that haven't seen the slapstick jokes before. The writing lacks focus and the romantic subplots are unnecessary and poorly executed. There's never any doubt there will be a happy ending and the movie will start to fade from your memory as soon as the credits roll. If you're looking for something to amuse the kids for a couple of hours over the festive period, you could do worse. But its appeal for the whole family is limited.
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
Comedy - Director: Richard Boden, Mandie Fletcher, Martin Shardlow - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over - Starring: Hugh Laurie, Miranda Richardson, Stephen Fry, Brian Blessed, Tim McInnerny, Tony Robinson, Rowan Atkinson
Comedy - Original Language: English - Classification: Parental Guidance - Starring: Christopher Ettridge, Victor McGuire, Emma Amos, Nicholas Lyndhurst, Elizabeth Carling
Comedy - Original Language: English - Classification: 12 years and over - Starring: Tessa Peake-Jones, Buster Merryfield, David Jason, Nicholas Lyndhurst
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Dec 29th, 2007
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