Elf - 17th December 2012

Here we are again and tonight we have the last Christmas movie before the big day. There will be no Tuesday Night is Film Night on Christmas Day, as on Christmas Day we will be watching The Sound of Music, or The Great Escape or whatever classic film they will be showing for the 1,000th time!

The more perceptive amongst you may note that tonight (17th of December 2012) is actually a Monday, well we need to be a bit flexible with our days, as our busy social calendar is overflowing this time of year, with various concerts, parties and evenings out to attend.

So, Tuesday Night is (a Christmas) Film Night (on Monday Night, as we're off to a Carol service tomorrow) presents;

Elf

Apparently Elf is a bit of a modern day classic, but I've never seen it. Well, I've seen clips of it and to be honest, I didn't like what I saw. It looked childish and a tad silly. So it was with some reservations that we sat down to watch the whole film.
Luckily, I was pleasantly surprised at the movie as a whole. The story follows Buddy the Elf (Will Ferrell) who was adopted at birth and found his way to the North Pole, via Santa's sack.
There he grew up, (literally up) and became the biggest of Santa's elves.

After some time, it was obvious that Buddy was different, this is where he discovers his origins and heads back to New York, to find his father.

So that is the scene set, the standard formulaic Christmas story now kicks in. Buddy's dad turns out to be an workaholic, uncaring person, (he is on the 'Naughty List') and has no time for his own son, let alone a son he knew nothing about, who appears from nowhere, in the shape of Buddy.
Buddy also comes into contact with Jovie, played by the lovely Zooey Deschanel. Jovie is employed in the toy department of large store. So here is our love interest.

Buddy attempts to integrate back into his father's life, but as always it ends up badly and we see them part and it takes a visit from Santa and a whole load of Christmas spirit to get them all back together.

So yes, it is your bog standard Christmas story, good versus bad, happy against sad etc. etc. but it is really funny in places. Ferrell is a very convincing, hapless and gormless elf. James Cann, plays Walter Hobbs, Buddy's sour faced dad. The omnipresent (or so it seems from our recent films) Mary Steenburgen (and that's no bad thing, as she is delightful) plays Walter's wife Emily.
The cast is adequate, the story is mediocre, but the laughs are high. It has all the ingredients for a classic Christmas film and would stand the test of time, to be seen year in, year out.

Not as good as some, but better than others. And as the movie's tagline goes; "This holiday, discover your inner elf".

OK then. Enjoy.