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Spoiler Points for Fred Claus (2007) [PG] 116 minutes
WIP™ Scale: $9.00
DVD Release Date: 25 November 2008 (click date to purchase or pre-order)
Film's Official Website • Film's Trailer
Click to read the non-spoiler review
Some Spoiler Points:
• When Nick and Fred Claus (Vince Vaughn) were little kids, Nick (Paul Giamatti) did everything just so perfectly that he constantly outshined his older brother. He even gave all of his Christmas presents to the poor, sometimes just after they were opened. His worst crime against his brother, however, was that he chopped down Fred's favorite tree resulting in the smashing of the bird house for his only friend, a little blue bird. Nick's reasoning was that Fred like the tree so much, it would be cut down and brought inside and used as the first Christmas tree. This event combined with incessantly disparaging comments from his mother (Kathy Bates) about how it's too bad he couldn't be more like Nick led to his eventual catastrophic resentment for Nick and decades if not centuries of estrangement. Sounds cheerful, doesn't it.
• Santa has a magic snow globe that can see anyone on earth at any time in their life. Wow, cool. Too bad this doesn't get utilized to determine naughtiness vs. reading the silly files, huh? They do use it on occasion, but why poor through files when you've got the globe at your disposal?
• So, why is Clyde (Kevin Spacey) such a miserable person? Turns out that Santa failed to deliver him a Superman® cape that he asked for as a kid. He thought that if he could be Superman®, he'd be able to fly away from his troubles which stemmed from having to wear thick glasses and being called "four-eyed Clyde". Because of this, he somehow worked his way into some company that oversees Santa with the evil plan to bring Santa down. When it's clear he won't be able to do it on his own by finding real problems with Santa and his operations, he'll resort to sabotage seizing the fissures in the family dynamics due to Fred's arrival at the North Pole.
The Ending:
Because Clyde tricks Fred into marking all of the children's files as "nice" even when they are "naughty" with only three days left to make all the toys to be delivered by Christmas, this becomes strike three in shutting down Santa's operations. Realizing it's over, Santa decides to repair his relationship with Fred and somehow figures out it all stemmed back to the day he cut down the tree. So, he gives Fred who has left the North Pole with his check for $50,000 in hand, a present, delivered by Mrs. Shrew…er…Mrs. Claus (Miranda Richards) containing a new bird house exactly like the one that was destroyed when his favorite tree crashed to the ground narrowly missing killing his favorite blue bird and only friend. When he opens the present, his heart melts, and he gets back to the North Pole using his $50,000 to fly, boat, dog sled, and snow shoe it. Upon arrival, he figures out that if they can deliver toys to every kid, they won't get strike three. So, he suggests they make the quickest 'boy' toy and 'girl' toy (baseball bat and Hula Hoop®) by the 1000s so every kid will get a toy. Santa's assistant, Charlene (Elizabeth Banks) calculates a time line that is a go. But, there's a new problem, Santa cannot do the journey, he's been injured. So, Fred will have to do it despite having no skills nor experience. Hence for what seems like 20 minutes of screen time, we see him breaking into homes, scarfing down cookies, tossing around presents, and flying around blindly with the help of Head Elf, Willie (John Michael Higgins). To stop him, Clyde cuts off power to the elves giving them air traffic support, forcing them to finish the job with buy a mere paper map. They succeed in the delivery just in the 'nick' of time. Everything is all good now, and Santa changes his policy that all kids, naughty or nice, will get a present because he learns the hard way in dealing with Clyde that if you don't give a kid a present, he may grow up to be a super villain instead of a superhero. Egad, yep, that's the take home lesson that every parent and/or guardian is hoping their children will learn from this film.
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