Review: Elf

Will Ferrell is one of the funniest men to ever walk the Earth. He has a sweetly naive presence that makes his often bombastic renderings all the more rewarding. He shone freely in this year's underappreciated Old School. Now, he's been given the opportunity to make himself into a star...and he will become one.

Elf, the magnificently quaint, yet hysterically funny, Christmas film from director Jon Favreau (Made), owes most of its success to the ferociously appealing performance of Ferrell as Buddy, the human raised as one of Santa's elves, who decides to return to New York to find his birth father. Fish-out-of-water hilarity ensues, with Ferrell commanding the screen like a pro of 30 films, rather than the 10+ he's actually made.

Equally appealing is the radiant Zooey Deschanel, who, along with All the Real Girls, proves she has the talent for the most provocative indie fare, as well as Hollywood blockbusters. Here's hoping she sticks more with the former than the later, but if she chooses her studio films as wisely as this in the future, she'll thrive for years.

Favreau, king of Hollywood hipster stylings (Made and Swingers) is not the most obvious candidate for a feel-good family Holiday comedy. All the more impressive, then, that he's turned out to be the perfect choice. His film shines in its homespun North Pole scenes (complete with a power tool-free toy workshop and Rankin/Bass-esque stop-motion-animation characters, one of whom is voiced by the great Ray Harryhausen), then crackles with humor when Buddy is forced to adapt to life in the big city.

It's a stroke of genius that Favreau and screenwriter David Berenbaum (The Haunted Mansion, forthcoming) have elected not to turn Buddy jaded or altered in a negative way. It's a Christmas movie, after all, and the world will, of course, turn around to Buddy's way.

Elf is a marvelous showcase for the soon-to-be-huge Ferrell. Already he has several high-profile projects in the works, including Bewitched (where he's replaced Jim Carrey) and A Confederacy of Dunces, David Gordon Green's upcoming adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize-winning John Kennedy Toole novel, two films likely to bring Ferrell's acting credibility up several notches. Hopefully, though, audiences and critics will realize how outstanding his work in Elf is. A film like this really has no business being as good as it is. It's a testament to its talented director and masterful star that it is.

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