‘Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house, Santa was puking and soiling himself.
I’m sticking that up front in this review to let you know “Bad Santa” is aptly named. Billy Bob Thornton plays a lowlife who pilfers stuff everywhere he goes, bringing new meaning to the phrase “Saint Nick.” His lone employment is an annual gig as a department store Santa, where he gets the inside dope he needs for robberies. He is a bilious, spectacularly hostile Santa who swears at kids on his lap, shows up drunk and picks up the first ho-ho-ho he meets in a bar (Lauren Graham).
The interesting thing about “Bad Santa” is that it’s also very much in the Christmas spirit because it suggests it’s possible to redeem even a mean-spirited, car-jacking boozehound who makes Ebenezer Scrooge look like Mother Teresa.
The possibility of redemption comes in the form of a woman (Graham) who cares for damaged strangers the way some people care for strays from the pound and an awkward, runny-nosed kid (Brett Kelly) who is as whole-hearted in his embrace of Christmas as the cuddlier Tiny Tim was.
There’s something very inspiring about that sad, hopeful kid and about a movie that finds a bridge between an opening that is about as festive as fish guts and a conclusion that is full of family and spirit and soul. There are a few rough patches along the way, but how could the real Santa disapprove of a film that finds a way to take somebody out of the “naughty” column and put him in “nice”?
BAD SANTA
3 stars
• Directed by: Terry Zwigoff
• Starring: Billy Bob Thornton, Lauren Graham, Brett Kelly
• Rated: R, for abundant profanity, sexual situations and some violence
• Should you go? If you’re a person with a taste for both the bitter and the sweet, you may go for it.
—
(c) 2003, Saint Paul Pioneer Press (St. Paul, Minn.).
Visit the World Wide Web site of the Pioneer Press at http://www.twincities.com/mld/pioneerpress/
Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services.
AP-NY-11-21-03 1609EST
Send questions/comments to the editors.
