Writer(s): Leo Benvenuti and Steve Rudnick
Starring: Tim Allen, Judge Reinhold, Wendy Crewson, and Eric Lloyd
I have a confession to make: I love The Santa Clause. But I can
also admit that, when viewed under even the slightest bit of scrutiny, it’s a
pretty terrible film. For starters, it
suffers from the same problem as Home Alone, and that’s that the main child
character is surrounded by terribly unlikable adults. Maybe that’s part of the winning formula for
children’s holiday classics; after all, Christmas is generally geared toward
children, and so it would make sense to put them in the spotlight of such
movies.
The parents in The Santa Clause are despicable in a
different way than the McCallisters; they can at least seem to remember that he
exists during family vacations, which is a good thing. But Neil and Laura Miller (Judge Reinhold and
Wendy Crewson, respectively) might be even worse—they have already told their
six year old son, Charlie, that there is no Santa Claus. Talk about destroying a childhood!
This news upsets Scott Calvin (Tim Allen), Laura’s
ex-husband and biological father to Charlie, who can’t believe they would do
something like that. Of course, Scott
doesn’t believe in Santa either, but seems to be desperate to have some kind of
connection to his son, and if that means pretending to have something in common
with him, then so be it! But then
shit gets a little too real when Scott hears footsteps on his roof. He runs outside to confront the cause of the
noise—only to discover that it’s Santa Claus himself! Startled, the real Santa tumbles to his death
(don’t worry: it’s in a lighthearted enough way that children will still be oblivious
to the real-life mortality of everyone around them). Scott Calvin discovers a card in Santa’s
pocket that says in the case of an accident, whoever finds this must take over
as the new Santa. Uh-oh Tim Allen, looks
like you’re manning the sleigh this year!
A lot of this whole idea is completely forced—Charlie isn’t
too enthused about being forced to spend a night with his dad by himself, and
begs to go back home with his mother.
You can even feel the distance in between them, during an awkward
dinnertime sequence that takes place at a Denny’s (?). Honestly, I got the feeling that Scott Calvin
was a pretty terrible father, who never really put much effort into connecting
with his son…and yet, once he becomes Santa Claus, then we’re all-of-a-sudden
supposed to forget his shortcomings as a parent, and cheer for him to win over
Charlie’s heart. Which isn’t hard to do,
considering he has the advantage of being SANTA CLAUS, for goodness sakes!
But Neil and Laura go beyond the typical stupidity of
holiday movie parents; they are downright cruel. For example, they find Charlie, who by this
point has visited the North Pole with his father and gone on Christmas runs
with him, playing in his room with chairs set up as reindeer, and a desk for a
sleigh. They find this behavior—you
know, that a six-year-old might have an imagination, and fun by
himself—completely odd, and blame Scott as being a negative influence on him. God forbid this kid ever has an imaginary
friend…they would probably try banishing him to a psychiatric hospital.
There’s also the annoyance of Neil and Laura berating Scott
for taking on the physical appearance of Santa Claus, which they believe he is
pretending to do solely to bond with Charlie, who by now is convinced that his
dad is the real Saint Nick. Right,
because it’s completely normal for a man to gain 45 pounds overnight, or to
grow a full beard in less than 24 hours, or for someone’s hair to go completely
white within a span of a day.
You know what though?
I am willing to forgive some of these shortcomings because it manages to
be a lot of mindless fun. Tim Allen even
manages to be funny, something that doesn’t happen very often—his barbs aimed
at Neil are often very humorous, and his slow metamorphosis into Santa Claus
features some inspired bits. I laughed a
lot more often than I was expecting to, and a lot more often than I do in these
typical family-themed films. The scenes
at the North Pole also feature enough whimsical fancy to delight the young,
without going overboard—this is just a simple story, simply told, and for that,
it is recommended viewing for all ages.
RECAP: There are many frustrating annoyances that prevent it
from being great, but The Santa Clause is a holiday classic that I enjoy
watching every time I see it. Tim Allen
is actually funny in his role as Scott Calvin-cum-Santa Claus, and while the
film certainly doesn’t aim for much, there's just enough humor and whimsy to make it perfect mindless fun for the
holidays.
RATING: 7/10
TRAILER
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