1989’s Prancer brings us part two of this week’s ‘So-heavy-I-can’t-believe-this-is-a-kids’-film’ double bill. This is a little like that Dutch Christmoose film, except the beast here is a reindeer, he doesn’t talk and there’s much, much more misery. And yet, it’s somehow pleasantly uplifting.
This is another tale of a child approaching Christmas while struggling to deal with the death of a parent. 9 year-old Jessica (Rebecca Harrell) is a typical American kid - a bit silly, very inquisitive, crap at singing but still giving it her all for the Christmas pageant. She still believes in Santa but her faith is being tested as her best friend starts to question the whole thing. Problem is, if there's no Santa, maybe there's no God, so maybe there's no Heaven and if so, where did mum go? No. Santa simply must be real. It's simultaneously heart-warming and tear-jerking, the logic through which this poor kid clings to her belief in all things magical, with the alternative being too awful to contemplate.
Jessica is brought to life by a superb, authentic performance from Haskell. She's not unbearably precocious like most children in these things. She just seems like a nice, normal kid, slightly mischievous, not always getting things right, sometimes doing dumb shit, getting in trouble like we all did. I see a lot of our Amelia in her - living in a bit of a make-believe world and clinging to the rules of that world with ferocious conviction. It's very cute.
Jessica lives with her rugged, outdoorsy father (Sam Elliott) and dick-ish older brother Steve (John Duda) on a small, snowy Michigan farm. Times are hard and Dad doesn't really know what he's doing raising a girl.
One frosty December evening, after narrowly avoiding a strangely prophetic falling wooden Prancer decoration on Main Street, Jessica encounters a poor, wounded reindeer in the moonlit woods. Noting that the beast kind of looks like the drawing of Prancer she did at school, she concludes that it simply must be the magical creature and forms an instant emotional attachment. When Dad comes along with his rifle to put 'Prancer' out of his misery, Jessica protests and the creature seems to disappear - is it magic? It's nicely ambiguous.
Prancer later turns up in the family barn and Jessica makes it her mission to nurse him back to health, with an old, emotionally blackmailed veterinarian (Abe Vigoda). Complications ensue.
I enjoy this one as pretty much all of it is believable. Things spiral out of control, sure, but in a mostly plausible way. There's plenty of cuteness, with our heroine chatting away to her new hooved companion and trying to ‘cure’ him with cookies, but none of it feels cloying. This feels more like the sort of silly but adorable stuff a real, clueless kid might do.
The film has a real edge too, with the constant threat that they'll get found out and her new pal will get shot , or worse, sold off to the butcher. I also like that there’s no real bad guy. Dad's just sad, angry and rudderless but trying to do the best thing for his beloved daughter. The conclusion of his story arc has me properly tearing up - Sam Elliott's just so good at playing a 'man's man' that it gets you right in the gut when he does the teary, emotional stuff.
This is an innately sweet film that benefits from some strong doses of realism, getting that balance just right. I can see why this has become a cult classic, though it sure is emotionally exhausting.
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