Another - almost unheard of - Christmas comedy has been unceremoniously added to the cloud. Dear Santa landed on Paramount+ with all the fanfare of some busted Christmas tree lights, and it's not really hard to see why. Put simply, this is far from the Farrelly brothers best work. You'd expect a movie starring the outlandish Jack Black as a devil posing as Santa, directed by Barry and written by Peter, to be an explosive comedy event, but it's just not the case. In fact, the movie never makes it much past mildly amusing, despite featuring a decidedly nutty but oddly Christmassy concept, and a lead actor known for being just the right kind of wild and unpredictable.
It should come as no surprise that Jack Black's portrayal of a sneaky Satan is the big selling point. He may be denied the chance to fully let loose, but he does deliver. He is pretty much what you'd expect, and for the most part it works. Bad jokes, and all. If you enjoy Black's big personality and crazy antics, along with his previous OTT performances, it is likely his devilish performance will make you laugh. As will P.J. Byrne as a stuck-up teacher. Even Post Malone hamming it up can be amusing. It just feels like they're all being held back, somehow. Where this movie surprises you, however, is with its younger cast. Namely Robert Timothy Smith and Jaden Carson Baker. Not only do they do a great job of portraying these not so popular kids with a rather unique dilemma, they also manage to hold their own opposite their adult co-stars, including Black, and are able to make it funny.
Unfortunately the movie is crippled by an identity crisis. Forced to walk a line between outrageous comedy and family-friendly festive flick, unable to commit to either. This could have been 'Bad Santa meets a demonic Barry from High Fidelity' levels of funny. But the movie can never get there because of this apparent fear of being totally - or even somewhat - depraved. At the same time, the lack of festivity means it can never be all that heartwarming. Case in point being the plight of the parents; their troubles have no major bearing on the story, so you're never really invested or even interested in their relationship, while their misguided attempts to help their son aren’t all that funny. It’s this inability to pick a lane that causes Dear Santa to unravel as we near the rather saccharine and disjointed ending - even with its amusing cameo.
Dear Santa may not be the explosive comedy event you'd expect, but thanks to a very Jack Black devil and his two young co-stars, it does at least manage to be amusing here and there - probably more so than it has any right to be.
5/10
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