Starring: Mel Gibson, Walton Goggins, Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Chance Hurstfield
Distributor: Icon Films
Runtime: 100 mins. Reviewed in Dec 2020
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Probably best said at the beginning of a review, the plotline and the developments of this comedy/thriller are bonkers. Who would have imagined a plot like this!
First of all, Fatman is Kris Kringle. For Miracle on 34th Street fans, he was happily embodied as Edmond Gwenn, even winning an Oscar for his performance, then by Richard Attenborough. He is a jolly old man, Ho-ho-ho, recognisable as Santa with his beard.
On the contrary, Chris Kringle is played here by a bearded and grizzled Mel Gibson. No dapper Chris Kringle this one. Rather, he lives in Alaska with his wife, Ruth, Mrs Kringle (Marianne Jean-Baptiste, memorable for film fans for her role in Mike Leigh’s Secrets and Lies). They have a motley crew of elves who work in a factory, preparing the gifts. But, Chris Kringle has fallen on hard financial times and, who would believe it, has signed a contract for the elves to start building planes for the Defence Force, military personnel on what is now the equivalent of a base.
So far, so different. However, it is even more different! With the touch of the bonkers!
Billy (Chance Hurstfield), dapper in suit and tie, is a spoilt brat and something of an inventor. Expecting to always win the school invention competition it is a shock when he comes in runner-up this time. His father is absent, he lives with a doting grandmother. He writes to Santa but it is extremely disappointed in the lump of coal that he receives.
What else is a young lad to do! Clearly, contact his favourite hitman and put a contract on Santa. It should be said that Walton Goggins does his best to make the hitman a memorable character, absolutely sinister, absolutely ruthless, absolutely committed to his contract, a fund of weapons, going shopping for even more, driving through Canada to Alaska in search of his target.
It should be said that the body count, anybody who gives information to the assassin and knows too much is immediately dispatched. And there are a lot of military casualties.
Which brings us to a kind of High Noon situation in the Alaskan snow, Chris Kringle facing off the assassin, knowing who the assassin is and his unhappy childhood and resentment about the small toy his father organised. Quite some shooting and it looks as though Santa is lost forever. Perish the thought.
Clearly not a film for the children’s audience. Is it a film for the adult audience? Well, it is certainly is something for those who want difference in their entertainment. But, in retrospect, it does seem rather bonkers!
Peter Malone MSC
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