2022, d. Sean Anders - AppleTV+
I look at writer/director Anders' repertoire on IMDB and it's basically a list of films I have actively avoided (all except Hot Tub Time Machine, I did watch that and it was ok). Add to that the fact that Will Ferrell's comedy schtick had kind of run out of gas in recent years, and the whole Ryan Reynolds thing has gotten pretty tiresome... and then sprinkle in the conceit of an A Christmas Carol musical, and it seemed like these the ingredients were a recipe for disaster.
Thank Santa for Christmas miracles though.
Don't get me wrong, only about half the jokes really land, and only about half the songs really seem to work, but the feels though... I think 100 percent of the feels are genuinely felt. And really, when you look at it, half the jokes do land, and half the songs do work, so why not lean into the positive, rather than the negative. Why not try and put some good into the world, rather than negativity?
This is a good movie, maybe even a pretty good movie. It's one that manages to effectively utilize both Ferrell and Reynolds' star power by giving them characters to play, rather than letting them just do that thing they kind of always do. It's exactly when they're permitted to do that thing they always do that the film kind of grinds down, and it feels like they fall out of character. Thankfully it doesn't happen too often.
The gist of the film is, much like the recent Hallmarkie, Ghosts of Christmas Always, about an afterlife organization that Scrooges people. The curious thing is the whole elaborate organization in Spirited is all there for ONE person every year. It was a global scale in GoCA. Here they do research and find the one candidate who, if they successfully scrooge them, will have ripple effects that make the world a better place. But it's clear the bureaucracy of this organization is long-serving and still thinks small. Putting all those resources, all that time and effort into one Christmas stocking every year seems terribly inefficient and wasteful (but, spoiler, they figure that out by the film's end).
Like GoCA, our lead is the Ghost of Christmas Present, here in the form of Will Ferrell. He's not the boss, but he's kind of the MVP around the workplace. Everyone loves him and he's amazing at his job. He's been eligible for retirement (which is a gold watch and the option to return back to Earth) for 46 years, and he's turned it down presumably because he loves his job so much, but we know there's something else (no spoilers...it should be a groan inducing surprise, but it actually works, and the story [and a few songs] build nicely upon it). When the boss picks out their next "perp", Present instead sees Clint Briggs (Reynolds)-- a big shot media consultant with a jaded world view and a talent for spin -- in action, and knows he's their next project. But the file comes back and shows that he's marked "unredeemable", but Present seems to know that nobody is unredeemable and he's ready to quit unless they're willing to try.
It goes badly. Bonnie the Ghost of Christmas Past (GLOW's Sunita Mani) is promptly seduced by Clint, and needs Present to take over her past duties. It goes only marginally better for him, that is, until Clint is faced with the memory of his dying sister's big ask of him and he can't handle it. Clint escapes into the afterlife headquarters, and there's a Monster's Inc. vibe that lasts all too briefly unfortunately. Clint is just too good, he talks circles around everyone and charms them at the same time. He's not malicious, per se, but he's oblivious to the maliciousness that spins out of his spin, but he also has a semi pessimistic view of the world, of other people, and so he learned how to manipulate them rather than connect with them.
He turns the tables on Present and starts to open him up, to learn about Present's past. Even after Present is reprimanded for how much he's being manhandled by Clint, he can't help but keep trying every tactic he possibly can. We find out why its so important to him, and it actually winds up being pretty sweet where it all goes. It has its twists and curve balls and it's a far more engaging story, with far more engaging characters, than I had thought. Even in the end it doesn't cheap out. We still get a coda that provides a happy ending but it's certainly not where you think it would wind up, and it's a better film for it.
The song and dance numbers vary from powerful to impotent, from dazzling to dorky, and kind of every stretch in between. The best numbers are the gut punches, the ones that really dig into the characters' psyches. They employ so many musical standard tricks, but I'm far from inured to them, so they still wrung out a few tears. One might not have expected Will Ferrell to be the musical type, but of his roster of SNL characters, I think his duo of Bobbi and Marty Culp with Ana Gasteyer showed he did have some singing acumen even if it was applied in a silly way. He really belts out some of these tunes here, and I'm impressed. He doesn't have the smoothest singing voice, but he manages the emotion and the intent of every song. Octavia Spencer also isn't known for her singing voice, but in playing Clint's right hand (and also Present's object of affection) Kimberly she gets a couple songs and really does well with them. Reynolds does more of a sing-talking but he's not embarrassing himself at all.
The dancing is pretty grand. There's a huge roster of dancers, so every number is BIG. Some of them are real wows, but there are many that are held back by Ander's lack of sensibility towards dance, capturing things at awkward, unflattering, or undynamic angles. On the flip side he also captures some pretty amazing moments, so it's all a learning process to be sure. Both Reynolds and Ferrell do pretty well in their numbers. They're not dancers but they do what they need to.
Sometimes, a film is bigger than the sum of its parts. Ultimately, I think the tried and true test of a holiday movie's success is whether it's one you'll want to watch again the next year, or even again the same year. With this, no promises, but I just might.
PS. I think the title sucks. I keep forgetting it.
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