Fred Claus

Saddled with an absurdly bloated running time and a relentless emphasis on melodramatic elements, Fred Claus is far from the light-hearted, family-friendly comedy its promotional materials have been promising and it’s ultimately clear that the film’s target demographic – ie small kids – will find exceedingly little here to embrace. The premise is certainly sound – Santa Claus’ older, resentful brother comes to the North Pole for a visit – but in the hands of director David Dobkin and screenwriter Dan Fogelman, the movie quickly establishes itself as a plodding and thoroughly tedious piece of work. This is despite the inclusion of an opening half hour that’s actually fairly effective, as Dobkin infuses the proceedings with an appropriately fairy-taleish sort of vibe (complete with a narrator and a house in the middle of the forest!) The inevitable arrival of Vince Vaughn’s Fred Claus, however, transforms the movie into an entirely different animal – with the actor’s free-wheeling, fast-talking screen persona coming off disastrously within the context of a family-friendly endeavor (ie he’s just not funny here). Vaughn’s grating performance is exacerbated by the undercurrent of familial drama that becomes increasingly pronounced as the film progresses, and it’s not much of a stretch to envision both children and adults finally losing patience with Fred Claus – which is too bad, really, given the effectiveness of the various supporting performances (Paul Giamatti, as Santa, is obviously a standout, but Kevin Spacey, John Michael Higgins, and Elizabeth Banks are all quite good here).

** out of ****