Hmmmm. This has maybe gone too far now. My family has just suffered a private, but devastating tragedy. So what do I do? While my wife gets some sleep, I sneak off to watch 1994's The Santa Clause. There's something not right about that. This has definitely progressed from being a silly adventure to an obsession or worse, an unhealthy compulsion. I'm not totally sure why I'm keeping this going but I do know it helps watching wholesome, family-friendly fare. Having something -anything - else to focus on is a welcome distraction. So this morning, I focus on Tim Allen.
The Santa Clause is another one that's become an established holiday staple for lots of people and I'm surprised I've somehow never seen it before. John Pasquin's film is offbeat, original and fun but I find it a bit uneven and tonally all over the place. I have to applaud the filmmakers for sneaking in a lot of heavy themes about divorce, mortality, custody battles and mental health issues into a kids film. That it remains entertaining throughout is due in no small part to funnyman Tim Allen, who pulls off the neat trick of making Scott Calvin - wisecracking, recently divorced dad to a cute moppet - not seem like a complete asshole. Like Arnie in Jingle All the Way, Calvin is the kind of guy who's late to everything because of work, lying to his kid about traffic etc. Luckily, he's also affable, loving and totally onboard with the importance of his son believing in Santa. This is made tricky by his ex-wife now being re-married to actually quite decent psychiatrist Neil (Judge Reinhold) who is really against perpetrating the whole Santa 'myth'.
Of course, it turns out that it's no myth at all and, when Scott has son Charlie (Eric Lloyd) for Christmas Eve, right after a bedtime reading of 'The Night Before Christmas', up on the roof there arises such a clatter. Yep, it's Santa and when Scott startles him, Old St. Nick seemingly plunges to his doom. Oops.
The film smartly skirts round the issue of Santa's mortality as Scott slowly starts to discover that he is now the new Santa. It's a fun premise, with Scott living the whole next year in denial while he develops an unusually fast-growing beard, a big belly like a bowl full of jelly and a heartbeat that sounds suspiciously like 'Jingle Bells'.
It's very silly stuff but with some surprising elements. Charlie knows the truth but everyone around him starts to worry his dad is going crazy, filling the kid's head with delusions. This leads to some hefty stuff about Scott's visiting rights getting revoked and worries over him being a threat to his own son, though this is all handled rather deftly.
Mostly, though, the film is a giggle with some cool ideas sprinkled here and there. We learn how Santa can get into houses with no chimneys, how he travels the world in one night and how he smoothly handles unruly pets. It's all part of the job description.
There's plenty to admire in The Santa Clause but for me it just misses out on true 'classic' status due to a little too much cheesy stuff like elves flying around on jetpacks and the like. I find the ending to be far too straightforward too - everyone's sudden acceptance of Scott as Santa feels too convenient and many plot holes are left undealt with. I can sort of see why folk love it so much and I realise I'm likely nitpicking because, understandably, the universe has me in a bastard of a mood. It's a decent movie.
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