Fluff, Glorious Fluff

At first blush Elfmay seem a stretch for director Jon Favreau, but in fact it is all of a piece with Made and Swingers, both of which are about overgrown kids adrift in big cities. If anything the movie is a departure for distributor New Line, whose 2003 releases boast the shock doc The Real Cancún and the remake of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Elf is not just a kids’ story but a Disney-perfect one to boot, in which truth and innocence bring balm to a dysfunctional family and a city full of raging capitalists. But the movie allows Favreau to gently tweak cutesy Mouse House production values without abandoning the concept, and it proves a splendid sandbox for his talents as director, actor and (who knew?) cartoonist. The most endearing and visually inventive set pieces in Elf play out in a toy store and in Walter’s mailroom, where Buddy brings joy to the world by creating a winter wonderland wherever he goes. For his part, Ferrell doesn’t do much other than prance about being good-natured, and though the actor is somewhat glassy-eyed, as if longing to be off somewhere doing impressions, in his statutory green-and-yellow costume topping enormous curly slippers he looks adorably like a giant zucchini with its roots still on. And though Elf deserves a good hiding for criminally underutilizing the divine comedy of Zooey Deschanel, who plays Buddy’s love interest (and, unexpectedly, sings like a nightingale), I cannot find it in my heart to spank a movie that boasts Bob Newhart in chrome-yellow tights, bifocals, and the same empty stare that made him the world’s goofiest television therapist.

LOVE ACTUALLY | Written and directed by RICHARD CURTIS Produced by DUNCAN KENWORTHY, TIM BEVAN and ERIC FELLNER Released by Universal Pictures | Citywide