Bad Santa

  

Directed by Terry Zwigoff

 

Written by Glenn Ficarra and John Requa

 

Starring Billy Bob Thornton, Tony Cox and Brett Kelly

 

Rated R for pervasive language, strong sexual content and some violence

93 minutes runtime

 

Every Christmas season sees a spectrum of Christmas movies.  There’s the sweet, good natured kind that might tell a story about a family that doesn’t quite see eye-to-eye and are all a bunch of quirky but basically OK people who just say the wrong things now and then but everything works out OK (Holly Hunter’s “Home for the Holidays).  Then there’s the sweet, also good natured movie about the lost soul who finds his salvation on Christmas (“It’s a Wonderful Life,” but John Candy and Steve Martin’s “Planes, Trains and Automobiles” has its moments, too).  Then there are the really sweet animated Grinch and Peanuts movies.

 

On the other end of the spectrum, there are movies about people who don’t relate well to Christmas; people who have a hard time with the holidays.  Many of us find ourselves having flashes of those feelings.  Like when a taxi pulls past a giant slush puddle and covers us and our Christmas presents with ice-water from our sodden shoes to our limp and drizzle-soaked ear-muffs.  The National Lampoon movies move in this direction.  Although they have happy endings, they sort of have an edge.  We’re not completely sure that the happy ending was meant seriously.  The people are slightly dysfunctional, and may get more dysfunctional as time goes on.  Like the main characters in Director Terry Zwigoff’s previous films, “Ghost World” and “Crumb,” they survive the movie and may get better with time.  Then again, they may not.

 

Moving farther out in this direction, we have Zwigoffs latest effort, “Bad Santa,” starring Billy Bob Thornton. In fact, one has to move considerably farther out to get to “Bad Santa.”  How dysfunctional a Santa is Billy Bob’s character, Willie Soke?  Try to imagine Mickey Rourke in either “Barfly” or “The Pope of Greenwich Village,” only without the self-control.  Try to imagine Sean Penn in “Fast Times at Ridgemont High,” only without the self-respect.  Try to imagine Jack Nicholson without the self-restraint.

 

If you can imagine all these things you may be able to summon up a picture of the loathsome and disgusting creature that Thornton brings to life in what is, in fact, one of the funniest movies of the Christmas season.  If you need to blow off some steam, this is the movie for you.

 

Matched up with Tony Cox as the black elf who may have found a permanent place in over-the-top Christmas flicks, Thornton spews the pent-up bile of millions of credit-crunched, shopping-shocked Americans over the silver screen like that last piece of fruit cake that just won’t go down for the count.  You can also see Tony Cox playing another off-kilter elf role as helper to a demented Santa in “The Hebrew Hammer.”  He plays a good solid part in “Bad Santa” but clearly bows to Thornton and lets him carry the show.

 

With a priceless supporting performance by Brett Kelly, a 12 year-old who can’t get respect at any price, Thornton’s character Willy careens through the movie like a space shuttle without a pilot.  He wears a Santa costume in most of the scenes, but he is almost never depicted as anybody who would ever be mistaken for St. Nick.  The fact that it takes almost forever for his audience of suburban families to see that he so drunk he can’t sit straight is part of the on-going humor of the movie (although it will be a stretch for some people to see the humor).

 

As you might expect, Marcus, his elf assistant, and he are not really professional Christmas players.  They have other things on their minds, things that are totally opposed to the spirit of the holidays and, in fact, totally opposed to nine of the Ten Commandments and most felony laws as well.  But while all the rest of the world just wants to shut the door on Willy, Brett Kelly (“The Kid” in the credits) sees him as a kindred spirit.  He takes Willy home to stay with him and his grandma (Cloris Leachman, no less) and, yes, redemption is on the horizon.  At least what passes for redemption in “Bad Santa.”

 

Rated R for just about everything that could possibly get an R rating, the movie is taxing to watch in spite of Thornton’s brilliance.  To say the profanity is pervasive doesn’t quite describe the situation.  The movie is sodden in verbal filth to the point where you stop hearing it after a while.  Leave the kids home for this one; and the sailors, too.

 

On a brighter note, the film provides a brief appearance by John Ritter as the pair’s boss, Bob Chipeska, a nebbish-cum-store manager who is somehow clueless as to the less-than-completely dedicated nature of the Santa/elf act.  The appearance in “Bad Santa” is the last credited to Ritter before his death last September (2003) of heart failure.  In spite of the minor nature of the part, it was a fitting end to one of the greatest comic careers of the last three decades.  John Ritter will be missed.