Fred Clause

Last December a teaser came out for this movie and it just had Vince Vaughn and Paul Giamatti sitting on a couch bickering and in that moment I thought "Well, this could be a Christmas movie actually worth watching." Of course, a teaser does not a movie make. As the trailers showing actual movie clips started coming out my excitement turned into disappointment and eventually a resolve to not see the movie. Well things don't always work out the way you think and my father wanted to spend some time with me and since he would not see Beowulf, our only real option was Fred Claus. I set out for it hoping it would be more like the teaser and less like the trailers made it look, so how did it work out for me?

Beginning in story book form we meet Fred(Vaughn) and Nic(Giamatti) Claus as young boys. At first Fred, the older brother, loves and cherishes his younger brother Nic, but soon that love turns to jealousy as their parents obviously prefer Nic. Oh and a bit of the new Santa Mythology, when someone becomes a saint, I.E St. Nic, the whole family kind of freeze in time, never aging past a certain age. Of course, this mythology has all kinds of holes in it shown throughout the movie. We cut to Fred as an adult and in true Vince Vaughn fashion, Fred is a fast talking, quick schemed, light on his feet charmer. He is a bit rude, but he is funny and that is why long time girlfriend (Rachel Weisz, totally slumming it here) cannot stay mad at him, even though it is obvious he forgot her birthday. After a very funny chase scene involving Fred running from a gaggle of Santas, Fred has to call his brother for bail money, and another $50,000.00 for a business deal. He knows Nic or Santa Claus cannot say no because he is a saint, but Santa practices tough love and tells Fred he has to come work for the money. Next thing you know Fred is on a sled headed for the North Pole. The North Pole is a very magical looking place, but Fred is not prepared for all the Christmas stuff. He loathes his brother, loathes the idea of Santa Claus and hates his mother. The big conflict of the movie is that some unnamed corporation who has some job that is not ever actually explained has sent a quality control man, Clyde(Kevin Spacey) to manage something or other. It isn't entirely clear, but if Santa gets three strikes he is fired from Christmas. Fred tries for a while to do the job correctly but after a while he gets disgusted at this naughty and nice business and the entire operation gets sabotaged. It is a PG family movie though, so it is not difficult to figure out how it ends.

I have the urge to compare this movie to Elf because they both star a big name actor in a family Christmas movie, but I prefer Vaughn to Ferrell so I preferred this movie. I think Vaughn's brand of fast talking humor works most of the time and while the movie is full of cliches something worked for me in it. It is possible Elizabeth Banks in a pointless role of Santa's helper dressed in the sluttiest of North Pole clothes (How does she stay warm?) helped in some way or that the friendship forged between Fred and one of the elves, Willie, was just funny and honest enough to help show Fred as a good guy. Of course it could also be the fact that the acting of the movie is way above what one would expect. I mean Giamatti and Spacey are far too good for something like this and their moments together really shine above the rest of the movie. On the negative side, the sound effects are a bit overly cartoonish, the CGIed Ludacris head and voice are not funny or cute, in fact, they are creepy and odd looking and it throws off the few moments he has. The story stretches itself out over too long a time and the logic behind some of the antics is never fully explained because, well kids movies don't need logic. There are two or three just absolutely hilarious moments, a few genuinely touching moments a few other funny moments but this uneven movie seems to have been written by a few different people because of how different the jokes are throughout. Overall I would never watch the movie again, but it wasn't a horrible way to kill nearly two hours and while it is no The Santa Clause, it is better than Elf.