Welcome to The Twelve Ways of Christmas, where we unpack weird and overlooked holiday films. And let’s face it, the blog roll could use the attention.
With little rhyme or reason, check in from now until The Day That Must Not Be Named for a new entry.
Early on in his visit to the North Pole, Fred Claus decides to shake things up with the workshop elves by wrestling the radio booth from the clutches of Ludacris’s dwarven DJ. Blasting Elvis Presley’s “Rubberneckin,” Fred bobs his head and shakes to the grooves of Paul Oakenfold’s remix and before long, even Ludacrismas is bouncing with the factory. Despite its unabashed cheese and some pretty horrendous computer animation that transplants adult heads on children’s bodies, “Rubberneckin” is the exemplar of what Fred Claus is all about: letting the adults get in touch with their inner child.
Conveniently “frozen in time” at the ripe age of 40-and-some-change, Fred Claus (Vince Vaughn) has developed a chip on his shoulder after living in the jolly shadow of brother Nicholas (Paul Giamatii) for centuries. Today, while Saint Nick delivers presents to all the good little girls and boys every year, Fred’s hacking it as a repo man, with select repossessions including free life advice to kiddies about college tuition and starting a family. The message? Put away the playthings and think ahead, because it’s never too early to grow up.
Vince Vaughn’s dry wit and blue collar persona play well with Fred’s humbug attitude, and when Nicholas invites his brother to the North Pole to patch up their estranged relationship, you can see the trouble already brewing. Fred’s tasked with handling the “naughty” and “nice” files, a job he inevitably neglects, sending work orders awry and drawing the ire of Clyde Northcut (Kevin Spacey), an efficiency guru hired by the nebulous “Board” to shape up or ship out Nicholas’ workshop. Spacey’s also been cast to type, playing a tepid variant of his Glengarry Glen Ross cutthroat, albeit this time with a juvenile spin: he’s bitter years after never getting the superhero cape he wanted for Christmas. Like all of Fred Claus‘s grown-ups, Clyde Northcut is still young at heart. A workshop secretary (Elizabeth Banks) and an intrepid elf (John Michael Higgins) flirt with romance like awkward middle-schoolers, and Fred wins back his impossibly attractive meter maid girlfriend (Rachel Weisz) with a cutesy teddy bear. When Nicholas throws out his back after an extravagant snowball fight with his brother, Fred reconnects with his own repressed childhood by donning the suit and hat he’s resented for years. Fred Claus elongates the childhood fantasies of its adult characters, gifting its grinches with Santa suits and Superman costumes.
There’s a serious crisis of audience in Fred Claus, which centers around its muddied relationships even as it appeals to slapstick humor and Christmas kitsch — like a sleigh navigation system or secret service ninja elves. Director David Dobkin and screenwriter Dan Fogelman want to talk to adults despite their message being one aimed squarely at children. Vaughn’s Fred Claus isn’t a bad boy, but his northbound visit lets everyone — including himself — get in touch with their inner child. Sometimes that means sticking a superhero cape on Kevin Spacey, and sometimes it means some pretty horrendous computer animation.
Way #1: Batman Returns
Way #2: Black Nativity
Way #3: The Gingerdead Man
Way #4: The Ice Harvest
Way #5: Christmas in July