There's been a wave, a wave, I tell you, of Will Ferrell hysteria in these, the post-Old School days. All you have to do is sing the final chorus of "Dust in the Wind," and anyone of college age within 3 miles runs over to laugh with you. So going to see Ferrell's new movie Elf, the bar was set pretty high for expected hilarity. And it's not that those expectations were not met, it's just that they were met in an unusual way.
You see, Elf, directed by Jon Favreau of Swingers and Made fame, is undoubtedly a kids movie, but if you go into it, as I did, expecting huge laughs nevertheless, Ferrell provides. Oh, how he provides. In what is essentially a two-hour sight gag (Will as Buddy the Elf, dressed in tights and a pointy hat over the course of the entire movie), Ferrell becomes a young child again so completely that it is literally impossible not to giggle.
Buddy the Elf (Will Ferrell) is put up for adoption by his mother as a baby, and on the night of his first Christmas, he crawls into Santa's sack as old St. Nick is dropping off toys at the orphanage. When they bring Buddy back to the North Pole, he is adopted by Papa Elf (Bob Newhart), and he learns the ways of elf life, which include, among other things, "acting like every day is Christmas day", and "getting in touch with your inner elf". But buddy's ability to make toys is severely hampered by his clumsy hands and 6'3" frame, and after he is sent to work where the "special" elves work, he soon learns that he is really a human, and decides to go to New York to find his father (James Caan).
At this point, the movie ostensibly becomes a Christmas-season remake of Big, with a child stuck in an adult's body and roaming around the Big Apple. Buddy becomes the best decorator the Gimbell's Christmas department has ever seen, but then gets fired, briefly imprisoned and slapped with a restraining order for attacking a "liar" Santa impersonator and starting a fistfight that destroys every display in the store. He comes to work with his dad, dressed in work clothes, and answers the phone by saying, "Hi! Buddy the Elf! What's your favorite color?" Later in the day, he loses his dad's big book deal by accusing his star children's book writer, who happens to be a midget, of being an elf. There is another hilarious fistfight, and the writer storms out, offended beyond words.
Elf is not a good kids movie the way Finding Nemo was a good kids movie, simply because adults will appreciate it on a different level than the kids. But appreciate it they will! The thought of Will Ferrell making a plate of spaghetti, then topping it with M&M's, marshmallows, maple syrup, chocolate syrup, and crumbled Pop Tarts, and then eating the whole mess with his hands, still has me chuckling three days later. It's absolutely too good to miss.
