Normally I despise Christmas films, with only a few notable exceptions. National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation is one of those exceptions. The first time I saw that, I had to pause the video because I was laughing so hard that I was missing the jokes.
Normally I find the Christmas genre contrite, overly sentimental and just plain slushy. However, I was persuaded to this by the casting of Paul Giamatti. I tend to like the movies that he's in, as he seems to pick his roles carefully (well, more carefully than most, let's say). Plus, it seemed to be a twist on the standard Santa Claus story from the trailer.
I'm actually glad I saw this. It was genuinely funny in places, a little sad and uplifting without the crowbarring of emotion that you'd expect from a Christmas movie.
Paul Giamatti plays Santa in a reined in fashion (if you'd forgive the dreadful pun), and the low level family hostility between Miranda Richardson's Mrs Claus and Kathy Bates' Santa's mum was a brilliant addition. Trevor Peacock sleepwalks the role of Santa's dad, and I kept expecting him to say "No no no no no...that's right." Elizabeth Banks puts in an able performance as the sidekick's love interest but it's Kevin Spacey's sinister performance as the antagonist that really makes the movie. I really loved the way that his showdown scene worked, it was both moving and funny (and a dig-in-the-ribs joke) all at the same time. Vince Vaughn also has a good message about the naughty and nice list. Rachel Weisz's Wanda was almost a secondary character, and could have been left out with no trouble at all.
I liked the way that Santa is shown as being an insufferably goody-two-shoes child, and the quiet resentment the child actor playing Fred portrays is quite good.
There's a hilarious scene involving Stephen Baldwin, Frank Stallone and Roger Clinton (Bill's brother) playing themselves at a siblings anonymous meeting. And the Santa chase was inspired lunacy.
Score: C++, missing out on the B- only because the last few minutes are so saccharin laden that at one point I thought I was going to need an insulin injection. I suspect this is to make up for the fact that the rest of the movie is surprisingly (and pleasantly) saccharin-lite.
OQ: He's not Alec!
