The Santa Clause [G]

Spending Christmas Eve with his son Charlie, Scott Calvin’s questionable parental compassion is suddenly given a shake when Santa Claus falls off his roof and, to try and cheer Charlie up, he puts on the suit. All of a sudden Scott becomes the new Santa Claus and it’s going to prove a very tough year for him as he slowly goes through the physical and emotional transformations. But with Charlie by his side believing in him, he just might make it through. 

This is another popular holiday movie that’s been around for ages, but one that I’ve never seen. A clever little story with a more mature and dramatic one running alongside it, The Santa Clause is a fun holiday film, by no means an amazing one, but fun nonetheless. 

Spending Christmas Eve with his son Charlie, Scott Calvin’s questionable parental compassion is suddenly given a shake when Santa Claus falls off his roof and, to try and cheer Charlie up, he puts on the suit. All of a sudden Scott becomes the new Santa Claus and it’s going to prove a very tough year for him as he slowly goes through the physical and emotional transformations. But with Charlie by his side believing in him, he just might make it through. 

The basic story is simple: a divorced and somewhat bitter father suddenly becoming Santa Claus and discovering a new love for everyone. It’s all a bit cheesy and sugary, but what I liked about this movie was that it wasn’t just about Scott becoming Santa and all the funny parts of his beard growing and becoming really fat and whatnot, but that there was this really mature and emotional story of a psychoanalytical sort of hue running alongside. The question of belief in magic and Santa is one that plays a huge role in this movie and it was really interesting to see how this fuelled the film’s drama and general progress. 

As far as a lead performance goes, Tim Allen did a fine job, though I find that Tim Allen is practically the same in every role he does so there isn’t really a lot to comment on there. 

Starring Judge Reinhold, Wendy Crewson, Eric Lloyd, David Krumholtz, and Peter Boyle, The Santa Clause is a fun little movie filled with drama, Christmas magic and clichés, love, and comedy. Not the greatest holiday classic to be ever produced, but a fun one nonetheless.