Elf

Director: Jon Favreau
Writer: David Berenbaum
Producer: Jon Berg/Todd Komarnicki/Shauna Robertson 
Starring: Will Ferrell/Bob Newhart/Ed Asner/James Caan/Zooey Deschanel 
Year: 2003
Country: US/Germany
BBFC Certification: U
Duration: 97 minutes

Over the years, Will Ferrell has been in some good movies, such as The Other Guys and Stepbrothers and he’s also been in some bad movies like Land of the Lost, however it’s unsure where Elf should go. Elf is about a human called Buddy, who was brought up in the North Pole by an elf. However when he learns that his real father lives in New York, Buddy goes on an adventure to find his real dad. First of all, the one thing that you notice about Elf is that you just couldn’t care for the story at all, it’s not well-written and it is, overall, silly. However, while it is silly and, at some times, uninteresting, this doesn’t mean that Elf is a bad movie. Although the story is silly and, while it’s true that I think the story is the main support of a movie, Elf actually manages to work fine without a good story. It gets by through the comedy of the movie and Will Ferrell, who practically carries the movie single-handed with his performance as Buddy. The comedy is admittedly quite silly but not silly in a way that’s unfunny. It has more of a childish humour to it that adults can laugh at as well.  

Elf has a good cast of actors but the most noticeable and most memorable performance from all of them is Will Ferrell, I doubt anybody will forget him in an elf costume so fast. The direction of Elf is all good with the magical touch of Christmas sprinkled everywhere and something that you could connect with when you were a child, however the writing isn’t done very well. None of the characters, except for Buddy, were interesting enough for you to care for them and they didn’t stand out very well next to Will Ferrell either. Overall, Elf is a good enough comedy for Christmas and will make a nice addition to your DVD collection.

For me, this isn’t one of Will Ferrell’s best movies but it’s definitely not his worse, he was just good. He was also just right for the part of Buddy and he really made this movie with his charming and loveable performance. Don’t expect anything groundbreaking and don’t expect anything serious but this will do to entertain both adults and children alike if you like harmless children comedy. If you see Elf, leave your brain at the door, you’ll have more fun that way.

6/10