‘Fred Claus’ is a little
weak for holiday film

At the Movies
By Senitra Horbrook

The calendar says it’s early November, but for the film industry, that doesn’t mean it’s too early to start the holiday movie season. Opening Friday, Fred Claus is first out of the gate.
This family comedy has a few laughs, but not enough that you’ll be roasting marshmallows in the fireplace while you watch the movie every year.
The sibling-rivalry premise that is played up in the ads for Fred Claus is only a small portion of the film. It has too many subplots and not enough peril to make me believe the story or be invested in the outcome.
Fred Claus begins in a time suggested as centuries ago, when Papa and Mother Claus give birth to their second son, Nicholas. The rivalry between Nick and his older brother Fred begins early, as Fred is put-off every time his mother asks "Why can’t you be more like your brother?"
The movie then jumps to 21st century Chicago, where Fred (Vince Vaughn) is a shady repo-man. When he lands in jail, he calls up Nick (Paul Giamatti) at the North Pole for bail money and a little extra ($50,000) to help him get a betting business off the ground. Nick agrees to provide the funds, as long as Fred will come to the North Pole this year and help with Christmas.
There’s some misplaced subplots, namely when Kevin Spacey’s character enters the picture. Spacey plays Clyde, an efficiency expert who just may determine that Santa’s Christmas operations are not efficient enough and may need to be moved to the South Pole or just cancel Christmas altogether. A few other minor storylines include an elf who is madly in love with a regular-sized Santa’s helper and an orphan Fred knows from Chicago.
I expected the reunion between Wedding Crashers director David Dobkin and star Vaughn to produce a much better movie. The adult comedy and camaraderie between leads Vaughn and Owen Wilson made Wedding Crashers a success. In this PG-rated flick, the adult comedy is missing; however the two leads do play nicely off each other.
Vaughn basically plays the same fast-talking, wise-cracking character he plays in most movies, like The Break-Up and Wedding Crashers. That’s one of the criticisms I’ve heard about Vince Vaughn, and I have to agree. He can be funny, but eventually audiences may be tired of seeing the same shtick over and over.
Giamatti is a sincere Santa with an annoying wife played by Miranda Richardson. I thought Mrs. Claus was supposed to be jovial, kind and always baking. Here, she seems rather high-strung and encourages Santa to practice tough love on his troublemaking brother.
There are plenty of things that don’t make much sense that kids will surely overlook while laughing at some of the sight gags.
The timeline is one. Are Fred and Nick immortal? The movie jumps from Santa’s birth to 2007 as if it’s only a few decades, not centuries. If Fred is the older brother, why does he look about 30 years younger?
The main problem with Fred Claus is that it fails to give the warm fuzzies that a holiday movie should. ••
Movie Grade: B-