Review of Elf (2003) by Amheretojudge — 26 Jan 2019

A Chaotic Christmas.

Elf Favreau's take on Christmas does exactly what such feature demands, a lot of magic, a lot of love and a whole lot of innocence flooding across the screen. The first act being of course dipped in irony, as a wholeA Chaotic Christmas.

Elf.

Favreau's take on Christmas does exactly what such feature demands, a lot of magic, a lot of love and a whole lot of innocence flooding across the screen. The first act being of course dipped in irony, as a whole new magical world is projected where most of the jokes are pulled out from the fact that there is a variation in their bodies compared to our protagonist. And this is a theme that never does and would end, from visiting a new city to street, jumping in on new lifestyle, every aspect of it is being mocked at through comparisons.

The rest of the structure is familiar, with antics that helps advance the storyline, the humor is never offered in extreme, there is a broad smile on your face throughout the journey; this is Favreau's big win, gullible in its own world and characters, a film has never been so satisfied with itself. As far as gags are concerned it can easily be left to Ferrell himself. His knack of eating too much sugar, his physical comedy, his way of dancing and picking up the phone by saying, "This is Buddy Help. What is your favourite color?"; it all bodes well.

His commitment of pinning himself down to that amount of childishness is what fuels this film. Favreau has few ideas on his minds that makes him push the boundaries on an emotional level, unfortunately this is where the film gets dodgy, there is very little art for them to draw out the emotions. Favreau should have known better to keep the film light and breezy, for that is where the film shines, a happy go lucky attitude is what it thrives upon. Elf has more human in him, it lops off few taboo subjects, and give you a decent simpler miracle.