Every year, Hollywood cranks out two or three Christmas movies in hopes of making a classic that will stand the test of time. You know what I mean; become a move like It’s a Wonderful Life or the 1947 version of Miracle on 34th Street starring Natalie Wood–Films that become so identified with the Christmas season, that many people make viewing one of these films part of their holiday tradition. For all of Hollywood’s efforts, most of these attempts fall flat. In the last twenty-five years that I’ve been loyally watching films, I can think of only one fairly recent release that has joined It’s a Wonderful Life and 1947’s Miracle on 34th Street as part of my annual holiday viewing. Since its release in 1983, not a year has gone by without at least one viewing of Bob Clark’s A Christmas Story.
It’s the success stories of films like A Christmas Story that give Hollywood studios hope. 2007 brought us Fred Claus. Directed by David Dobkin (Shaghai Knights, Wedding Crashers), the film presents us with a gimmick. Santa has a brother! A rather subdued Vince Vaughn plays Fred Claus, a none to motivated repo man who is jealous of the adoration that his brother Santa Claus (Paul Giamatti) gets for his yearly benevolence. It doesn’t help that his mother (Kathy Bates) doesn’t seem to hide her favoritism for son, Nick. It’s been that way ever since the boys were kids several hundred years ago. (It is “explained” by a narrator that the magic of being a saint halts the aging process not just on the saint himself but on his spouse and immediate family members.)
Fred has a faithful, loving girlfriend named Wanda (Rachel Weisz) that he takes advantage of. He spends most of his time dreaming of the day he can open an off-track betting parlor. Needing $50,000 to get his business off the ground, Fred decides to call his brother Nick up at the North Pole and ask for some financial aid. Despite the misgivings of his wife (Miranda Richardson), Nick agrees to give Fred a loan if he’ll come up to the North Poole and help him out during the Christmas rush.
This is where Fred Claus had the potential to be a pleasantly funny movie. Unfortunately, screenwriter Dan Fogelman, working from a story he wrote with Jessie Nelson, has created a movie with so many dangling plots, throwaway characters and half-baked attempts to stir up some Christmas spirit, the whole thing ends up being rather messy and pointless. Fred and Nick’s dad, played by Trevor Peacock is in several scenes but hardly ever utters a word of dialogue. While the boy’s mother and Fred’s girlfriend Wanda simply disappear for big chunks of the film.
Fred Claus does have a token villain. Clyde (Kevin Spacey), an efficiency expert from “The Board” (evidently the same one that governs the Tooth Fairy and the Easter Bunny) who arrives at Santa’s village at the same time as Fred with threats of closing the place down. He lays down some rules. If Santa’s operation gets three strikes before Christmas, he shuts the place down. On the other hand, if there are less than three strikes, “I’m required to send back a positive report.” Also, Santa is not allowed to tell anyone who Clyde is or why he’s there. Why? No reason; whatever. Predictably, Fred’s laissez faire attitude causes some problems at the factory, resulting in some strikes.
One of the lead elves, Willie (John Michael Higgins), is in love with Santa’s assistant, Charlene (Elizabeth Banks) — who, apart from the Clauses, is the only normal-size person living at the North Pole. (This is not explained.) Fred has to help Willie muster the courage to tell Charlene how he feels. Why? I have absolutely no idea. There’s no obvious reason for it.
One scene I’ll always remember. Frustrated, Fred attends a support group for second-banana siblings. Frank Stallone is there, sheepishly admitting that his faith in brother Sylvester faded with each new Rocky movie. Roger Clinton explains how difficult it was being “the First Brother.” Fred tries to get a word in edgewise but ends up shouting at Stephen Baldwin (who is great, though Daniel or Billy would have worked in the part). A few more scenes like this, and Fred Claus would have been much better.
As it is, Fred Claus is all over the place. Vaughn and Giamatti work well together, but there’s just too much going on for either of the actors to fully utilize their talents. Fred Claus doesn’t seem to have a point. One the film is going for your funny bone with the use of sight gags (Fred sleeping in a tiny bed), the next minute its bordering on a tearjerker as Fred deals with sibling rivalry issues. Lots of potential messages behind Fred Claus are hinted at, but never really defined. Is it a movie about learning to love yourself, your family? It’s this lack of clarity and the films lack of a clearly defined plot that will keep it from being a special Christmas film for years to come.
Fred Claus arrives on Blu-ray with a strong 1080p/VC-1 encode framed at a wide 2:40:1 that is very dimensional, natural looking, and overall pleasing to watch. Colors really pop on this disc, not just the reds), but the other primary colors as well. Images were generally very sharp and clean, but on occasional got soft on some scenes. Background detail was very good, as was fine detail in the foreground which gave long shots a nice sense of depth and perspective. Grain was noticeable, fine textured, but also inconsistent, as some shots had more visible grain than others. Flesh tones looked natural within their environment, very natural in Chicago shots, and rosy red at the North Pole which is just what you would expect in cold weather. Overall I found the picture quality quite good, and a fine example of blu-ray technology.
Unfortunately Warner Bros. only thought to include a lossy 5.1 Dolby Digital soundtrack encoded at a constant bit rate of 640kbps. This mix works pretty well.. First, this movie is mostly dialog, and it was always clean and clear, locked firmly in the center channel, and never stepped on by the sound effects or music. The surrounds are used to effectively to enhance the frontal hemisphere, with some panning from rear to front, and vice versa. Dynamics were generally good, and fit each moment appropriately. The LFE is used to support the sound effects and on screen action, so its use is quite conservative. The music in the film is so subtle, that it almost blended into the background, becoming a mere afterthought in the sonic picture.
While there weren’t a lot of extras on the standard-definition release, this Blu-ray edition comes fully loaded with three separate discs. Disc one begins with the same bonus items found on the standard definition release: An audio commentary with director David Dobkin, followed by over twenty-five minutes of deleted scenes in non-anamorphic widescreen.
Now for the new stuff, all of it in high definition. First, there is a featurette called “Pause for Claus: Elves Tell All,” nine minutes of behind-the-scenes information from the elves. Next, there is “Sibling Rivalry,” nine minutes with Frank Stallone, Roger Clinton, and Stephen Baldwin on the subject of having brothers more famous than they are. After that is “Meet the Other Claus,” thirteen minutes of typical promotional material from the filmmakers. Then, there’s a four-minute segment on “Vince and Paul’s Fireside Chats,” where the two stars talk to one another about five different subjects related to the movie and acting in general. Finally, there’s a brief Ludacrismas rap-music video (the rapper Ludacris has a small part in the movie as a DJ in Santa’s workshop).
Things end on disc one with English, French, Spanish, Japanese, and Portuguese spoken languages; French, Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Portuguese subtitles, with English captions for the hearing impaired.
Disc two contains a standard-definition digital copy of the film compatible with Windows media only, not with Macs or iPod devices. And disc three contains a DVD game, “Fred Claus: Race to Save Christmas,” in standard-def full-screen. In the game the player or players face a series of challenges from making to delivering toys, culminating in “flying blind.”
