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Bad Santa 2003 |
Review by Jonathan Cornwell |
Directed by Terry Zwigoff
R, 93 min. (pervasive language, strong sexual content, violence) |
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Starring: Billy Bob Thornton, Bernie Mac, Lauren Graham, John Ritter, Tony Cox, Brett Kelly, Cloris Leachman
Producers: Sarah Aubrey, John Cameron, Bob Weinstein
Screenplay: John Requa, Glenn Ficarra
Cinematography: Jamie Anderson
Distributor: Dimension Films
Released: 11.26.03 (Wide) |
Rating:
 (out of ) |
If you're the type of person that cringes at the binge of sentimentality and brightly lit decorations that deluge communities
at this time of year, you'll love director Terry Zwigoff's acidic Bad Santa. This film's Santa is no tender old man
with smiles and presents in tow; no, Billy Bob Thornton's Santa (Willie) is a bitter, depressed man who can't decide how to torture his soul
best - whether to drink himself to death or endure the seemingly endless parade of children that sit on his lap awaiting merry
words but instead leave with incredulous looks on their faces and, for some of them, probably years of therapy in the future.
And that's just the beginning. Santa's real job, with the help of his day-job sidekick and dwarf, Marcus (Tony Cox), is cracking
their employer's safe, providing them spending money for the next year, until it's time to repeat the routine in another part
of the country. But this time around, in Phoenix, Willie and Marcus have their work cut out for them.
While Marcus, who devises the plan to disable the alarms, must navigate both the local department store manager's (John Ritter in his final role) concerns (he catches
Willie having sex in a changing room) and a security chief, Gin (Bernie Mac), who becomes suspicious of the two, Willie
is confronted with a nerdy kid, Thurman (Brett Kelly), who refuses to wilt at Willie's nasty disposition, and a bartender,
Sue (Lauren Graham), who has a serious Santa fixation. But Willie finds a use for both of them, staying at Thurman's
house (only his senile grandmother watches over him) for the holidays and finding various places to satisfy Sue's
fetish. Of course, Thurman and Sue do their best to rescue Willie from his own intense desire to end his
miserable existence, and the reason Bad Santa succeeds is because Willie stays true to himself even though he undergoes
a slight transformation.
The material in Bad Santa is dark and then some, more or less the antithesis for everything conventional during the
Christmas season. Willie's Santa is drunk, foul-mouthed, uncouth, and self-absorbed; his idea of a good time is to see whether
or not he can smoke a pack of cigarettes before he passes out from downing countless shots of liquor. We learn, at least
in part, that Willie's past is predictably unpleasant, leading to his current state of numbed existence. That he can focus enough
to do his job (listening to each hopeful child sitting on his lap) is a minor miracle in itself, considering the fact that he survives
an episode where he shows up late (as usual) to his Santa's job and proceeds to take out his frustrations on the Santa backdrop,
where a reindeer prop is smashed to pieces in front of the shocked children. His own self-inflicted demise isn't something
that can be remedied with a simple trip to a therapist.
Only the right type of director could pull off such a premise, and Zwigoff seems a perfect fit for the job. His Crumb, a
first-rate documentary about the life of a cartoonist, and Ghost World, an offbeat comedy that was one of 2001's best
films, both underscore his talent to evoke humor from idiosyncratic characters that are at odds with the rest of humanity.
Here, his Santa is a deeply flawed man, but from his perspective the character makes perfect sense. His deliberate,
melancholy style focuses the viewer's attention squarely on Willie's narcissistic tendencies, which are serious but never
quite effective enough to satisfy Willie's desire to end life on a pathetic note. Under Zwigoff's steady direction, Thornton
seems a perfect fit for Willie's laconic personality.
In some ways, Bad Santa reminds me of another film, About a Boy, which dealt with a man whose loner attitude and
selfish persona gradually changes in the light of a loyal companion, also a stubborn boy, that forces him to confront his
own dour worldview. Although Willie never completely capitulates to Thurman's compassionate voice of reason, he does
find himself thinking of Thurman's well-being more than one would think he was capable of. And, like Hugh Grant's
shallow character, Thornton sees that life, despite its oppressive nature, is sometimes worth living for others instead of only
for themselves.
The film's performances, led by Thornton, who has played almost every imaginable type of character, are solid and never
lighten the impact that screenwriters John Requa and Glenn Ficarra envisioned. The characters and situations in Bad Santa
are certainly not for families or even most moviegoers, but for a large minority that relishes the chance to release
tension during a hectic holiday season, Zwigoff's film could be the perfect vehicle to exorcise some frustration at society's
love affair with bloated holiday cheer.
© 2003 Jonathan Cornwell
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 |
 | Masterpiece - Film perfection |
 | Excellent - A Must See |
| Good - Highly Recommended |
| Fair - Worth seeing |
| Average - Viewable, but not recommended |
| Below average - View at own risk |
| Poor - Avoid at all costs |
| Very poor - An embarassment to the film industry |
| Zero | Awful - One of the worst films ever made |
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