Fred Claus by Paul Bullock

Christmas. Time to deck the halls, whip out the mistletoe and wine and put some Christmas classics in the DVD player. Sadly, it’s not been easy to do that last thing of late. The festive period is such a lucrative one for Hollywood studios that they rarely shoot for classic status when offering up their seasonal treats, instead settling for the kind of bland, sugary sweet Christmas puddings that will offend no-one and therefore get undiscerning bums on seats. Darker, more cynical, films like Bad Santa have also been released, but they’re not exactly full of the festive spirit. So, for the last truly great Christmas film, you’ve got to go all the way back to 1993’s The Nightmare Before Christmas and before that you‘re looking at maybe Scrooged or Gremlins in the 80s. Fred Claus doesn’t do too much to change this, but it’s a worthy attempt at festive fun nonetheless.

We begin centuries ago in an olde time log cabin where Nicholas Claus (Paul Giamatti) is just about to be born. Same old, same old, then? But, as this oddly long and convoluted prologue goes on to explain, jolly ol’ St Nick has a brother we’ve never heard of, called Frederick (Vince Vaughn). Despite being the elder brother, Fred is overshadowed by his sibling’s inherent goodness and, having seen Nick sainted for his selflessness, he has gone on to become a grinchy modern-day repo man who is estranged from both his brother and his parents (Kathy Bates and Trevor Peacock), who have all become immortal, along with Fred, thanks to a bizarre plot contrivance involving the fine print of sainthood.

As you can probably tell, Fred Claus has its fair share of humbug and this is its biggest problem. Dan Fogelman’s script can‘t decide if it wants to be a holly-jolly Christmas caper (as the ads and premise suggest) or a more grounded dramedy about sibling rivalry. As a result, the film ends up being a blend of both and the two tones never really mesh well. In one scene, the Clauses and Fred‘s girlfriend Wanda (Rachel Weisz, sporting a frightening Lahndaaaaahn accent) are staging an intervention for the wayward brother set up by Mr Northcut (Kevin Spacey), a devious efficiency officer who is hoping to shut Santa down. No sooner has this semi-serious drama come to an end though then we are into a slice of all-out slapstick in which Fred and Santa fall out and have a snowball/snow-speeder fight complete with Looney Tunes-style sound effects.

Innuendo, cynical jibes at modern life (Santa’s workshop is set up like the most bureaucratic of offices, which rather takes the magic away from it) and typically Vince Vaughn-style wry humour also contribute to this messy mixture, meaning that even the film‘s comedy doesn‘t really have a clear tone to it. Thankfully, despite the fact you won’t laugh consistently, many of the jokes do raise a chuckle (a scene involving Frank Stallone, Roger Clinton and Stephen Baldwin at a self-help seminar for forgotten brothers works particularly well) and the starry cast (which also includes Miranda Richardson as Mrs Claus) are quite happy to join in the fun by serving up a few slices of knowing Christmas ham.

Of course, there has to be a Big Message to these kinds of films and, of course, it doesn’t really add up to anything more than the usual clichés of Family Is Important and Being Alone is Bad. But, despite its many failings, time and imagination has gone into Fred Claus’ making and it does, at least, add something mildly new to the mix by questioning Santa's 'naughty/nice' regime. Ultimately, in the minefield of Christmas movies, Fred Claus manages to be a sweet, entertaining little flick that probably outstays its welcome by a good twenty minutes, but will leave you feeling all warm and Christmassy in the end - and that's all your paying for really.