..Gary Dretzka
..Noah Forrest
..Leonard Klady
..R.J. Matson
..David Poland
..Douglas Pratt
..Ray Pride
..Michael Wilmington

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And then there is Elf. ah, Elf. I can just imagine in my mind, sitting down to watch Elf and looking over at my grandkids and telling them about the first time I saw their favorite Christmas movie.

Elf is a great Jerry Lewis film for the holidays. It has a big heart. a bigger heart than you can imagine. In Who-ville they knew, that a viewer's small heart would grow three sizes each view!

One of the things that's so remarkable about the film is how really simple it is. David Berenbaum's script and Jon Favreau's direction are not fancy. Set-up, punch. set-up, punch. But they rarely miss, in no small part due to their how-can-this-make-sense cast of James Caan, Zooey Deschanel, Mary Steenbergen, Ed Asner, Bob Newhart, Faizon Love and a kid named Daniel Tay who makes a tough role work better than it deserves to work. But at the center is Will Ferrell, who brings a relentless sweetness reminiscent of the great comedians.

What seems to fuel Farrell is this central gentility - on display here as a naturally kind elf - even as a drunken buffoon in a movie like Old School. His characters want to be loved and have no fear of being caught in their neediness.

Here, from the opening frames that pay homage to the 70s Rankin/Bass stop-motion Christmas animations, we know that we are going somewhere we 30somethings really want to go. Bob Newhart takes over as Narrator and Unit Production Elf. more simple goodness. And then off we go with the story you know from the trailer and commercials. Farrell is a 6' 3" elf.

After mining every possible gag out of that at the North Pole, Buddy The Elf is sent on his way to the big city, where the disconnect gets even bigger. Again, the takes are raised as high as they can go. And then the search for his real father.

It's not a traditional three-act structure really, since when Buddy ends up in James Caan's world, Caan and his kin have to go through a three-act transition of their own. And then there is the lovely, unexpected performance by Zooey Deschanel, who evolves from sprite-like to being an elfin spirit as the movie progresses.

Elf is a movie that takes the time to allow someone to sing a song the entire way through.

Elf is a movie that can make racial and other "ism" gags that are so sweet that no one could get his or her political correctness manual out quickly enough to complain.

Elf is a movie about all kinds of families and all kinds of love.

Elf is a movie that's satisfied to take its big jokes and to let them go, moving on to the next gag.

Elf shoots right at your heart and like its star, will beg for love unabashedly.

Simple, simple, simple.

Richard Linklater is 43. Jon Favreau is 37. Both filmmakers are going to be taking major steps towards bankability with these films. But the thing that they have most in common is that they grew up on simpler films. They both made films that are stripped down. clean. joyous.

It is odd to see Elf and Texas Chainsaw Massacre on New Line's slate this year, since they both feel like what many in this town would call "Classic Mike DeLuca projects." Directors early in their careers, working on genre material, succeeding beyond expectations. Elf will not do as much business that Shrek did , but it has that Shrek feel and it will be a holiday perennial, if such a thing exists anymore. (If I were at TNT or Comedy Central or particularly at The WB, I would be fighting to make a 6-showing, uncut, annual, exclusive Nov/Dec deal as soon as possible, treating this film with all the love that The Wizard of Oz used to get on CBS for decades. If you built it, they will come. Premiere on those nets next holiday season before going to the pay cable window. STARZ doesn't deserve the Holiday 2004 bonanza all by themselves.) If Elf can hold its screens, it will play strong all through November and December this year.

- David Poland

Release Date: November 7, 2003
Rated: PG

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Starring: Will Ferrell,
Edward Asner, Mary Steenburgen, James Caan, Bob Newhart

Produced by: Jon Berg, Todd Komarnicki, Shauna Weinberg

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Distributor: New Line

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Review Date: September 30, 2003