Review by C.J. Bunce
Dumb and Dumber, Me, Myself, and Irene, There’s Something About Mary, Shallow Hal–When Bobby and Peter Farrelly make a Christmas movie, you should know what you’re going to get. And you’re going to get it in the new Paramount+ Christmas movie Dear Santa, their take on the Bad Santa and Krampus sub-genre of Christmas movies. When eleven-year-old dyslexic boy Liam (played by Robert Timothy Smith) writes his letter to Santa, he inadvertently writes it “To Satan,” which summons Jack Black in full horns and demon regalia to grant him three wishes. This is not going to be a normal Christmas, and as you might guess, those three wishes come at a price. The result is classic Jack Black, over-the-top goofy fun in the style of his School of Rock and Orange County roles, plus talented young lead kid actors.
Those two kid actors, Smith as Liam and his bestie Gilly, played by Jaden Carson Baker, are ringers for the young versions of Shawn Spencer and Guster Burton in the long-running comedy series Psych. If you’re missing that show this will give you a good two-hour fix. Liam and Gilly are as good as two kids you’re going to find, so it creates that much more of an opportunity for hijinks when the Devil is there to talk Liam into doing anything remotely wrong or bad.
Black obviously has a blast playing this role. He really leans into it, a mix of his Tenacious D wild man with his appearance on Community, Orange County, School of Rock, Goosebumps, and other eyebrow-raised personas. At times he seems to summon John Belushi as he skips and spins and rolls onto the ground as if he’s a tiny ballerina. But his inflections and mannerisms this time are practically an impersonation of comedienne Betsy Sodaro’s mouthy ghost on the network TV comedy series Ghosts.
Not quite a coming of age movie, it also doesn’t fit neatly in any box. Liam has learning issues, Gilly has big teeth. Liam is bullied at school. The movie has a small romance subplot, with Liam wanting to ask Emma (played by Kai Cech) on a date (which as Liam says, nobody does anymore). It’s the kind of element for a junior high story, but it doesn’t get in the way, instead fueling a climax at a Post Malone concert that has some similarity to the climax of the recent M. Night Shyamalan movie Trap. Who is the target audience for this movie anyway? Probably adult fans of Farrelly comedies and Jack Black. But the humor includes both jokes for the younger set and jokes with references only older viewers will understand. Some of the most fun is just Jack Black being Jack Black, or Black disguised in plain sight as other characters so he can interact with Liam.
Sure, the title of the movie probably should be Dear Satan, but that’s going to lose some of the audience share. The Farrellys don’t take their humor into many dark places here, not as far as the recent demon-themed Netflix comedy series Hysteria! (which also didn’t go that far). It’s a lot of fantasy fun, peppered with appearances by some familiar comedy faces, including Keegan-Michael Key (Keanu), Hayes MacArthur (Angie Tribeca), and Ben Stiller (There’s Something About Mary).
But just as you think this is mainly a comedy, the Farrellys lean hard on some darker drama notes. A family trauma is mentioned early on as the reason for a recent move from Connecticut, but late in the movie viewers learn Liam had a younger brother that was killed, and that prompted the move. His parents are near the divorce stage, and take him to a child psychologist for therapy–not the typical elements of a silly Christmas movie that also has a Dumb and Dumber-level fart scene.
But Jack Black and Farrelly fans will enjoy this one, and maybe others, too. Dear Santa is streaming now on Paramount+.
