Mel Gibson is a gritty and gritty Santa in this ridiculous, entertaining vacation thriller [Review]

“Fat man, The action comedy fantasy film “Santa Claus versus Contract Killer” by brothers Eshom and Ian Nelmsdares only wonder As by doing hell Saint Nicholas can afford to make enough toys to reward every child in the world for good behavior? Nobody cares about the logistics of their annual Globetrott. it is magic. But in “Fatman” Santa is not a worn-out and happy old wizard, but a worn-out sodbuster who works his fingers to the bone to keep the doors of his workshop open in a moment when more children than ever are on the List of naughty ones. and its government grant does not cover annual deficits. It’s a difficult time to be funny.

Times get tougher when Billy Wenan (Chance Hurstfield) opens a lump of coal on Christmas morning and swears revenge on Santa by calling the skinny man (Walton Goggins), a killer with his own vengeance against Santa Claus. Billy is fair, legitimate, and used to getting his way. A classmate receives first prize at the school science fair and persuades her to give up the title under threat of torture. Meanwhile, Santa, better known as Chris Cringle (Mel Gibson) is forced to enter into a contract with the US military to save his factory and ensure his team of elves remains busy. Standing on the verge of bankruptcy is bad enough is not A stony-faced murderer on your trail.

“Fatman” is a strange duck. The film lives up to the crazy line without taking it as far as possible. The lyrics are absurd, but the atmosphere is sober. Watching the former and the latter collide is more intriguing than entertaining, which sounds like a failure, except that “intriguing” will suffice for almost any image based on a Gibson performance. Everyone will enter “Fatman” with their Gibson luggage, and “Fatman” does not apologize for their transgressions (“Blood father“) Or articulate his belief in the brotherhood of man (“Hacksaw comb“) Or even use its history of racism and anti-Semitism (“Drawn over concrete”). Instead, the film softens him in a way that none of these films attempted without, however, sacrificing the serious charisma that is so inherent in himself.

This is a poetic way of saying that Gibson looks great as the gruff Hangdog Santa Claus, who has flint on the outside but kind behind the eyes. Chris treats his elves well. That his only option is to have them make control panels for fighter jets really breaks his heart. He’s most human around Ruth Cringle (Marianne Jean-Baptiste), who has known him for some time and understands where his head is and what he is suffering from under the hood. Around the military brass and government suits that stand on his doorstep, he is scarce and small and has no problem using his Santa Claus powers to read them the CliffNotes about the misery of their lives.

Peter RamseyFilm 2012 “Rise of the GuardiansImagine Santa Claus as a daring superhero. Think of “Fatman” as the grim and gritty twist on the concept fanboys insist on to legitimize stories of grown men fighting evil underground. Chris has super power, a healing factor and knowledge of all sins. It sounds ridiculous because it is is. But “Fatman” cast just the right person to give the faux-mature youth a sense of grounding, and the right person across from him to give the mechanical buttonman for Chris’ head a sense of black, dry humor. Goggins has few emotions, but he does “little” weird, regardless of whether he ambivalently shoots people in his sleep or repairs his frizzy hair after stuffing himself into a Steve Jobs turtleneck.

The film is structured around the inevitable confrontation between Chris and the Skinny Man, so undoing expectations of a non-stop shoot-up between Gibson and Goggins. But the build is actually interesting, in large part because the leads are so compelling; Whenever “Fatman” cuts off on Hurstfield, who is planning his house as if he were Snidely Whiplash’s brutal great-grandson, the momentum stops. Billy, the play’s real villain, is obsolete for his role, which is a mixed blessing. Hurstfield is fine, irritable little shit – which, by the way, is his caller ID tag on the Skinny Man’s smartphone – but, perhaps unsurprisingly, he’s a slip on the radar alongside his elders. At the same time, you watch a rich fool pay for what he thinks is his property when he doesn’t deserve it to feel relevant to our current political problems. Perhaps it is best that the Nelms emphasize this dynamic; We could all use a break from dramatized Trumpian tantrums.

What “Fatman” could have used More Aside from a pop of color here and there – the film unfolds against snow-covered backdrops, but that doesn’t mean the palette has to be somber – it’s an embrace of its genre influences. Chris’ ultimate western-style showdown with the Skinny Man suggests a movie that could been, and a touch more of that aesthetic could have helped combine “Fatman’s” factual B-movie silliness with Western stoic machismo; At the other end of the spectrum, issues like optimism and hope aren’t implemented half as well as they should be in a cynical, commercialized season, largely because they are briefly touched on and hardly touched on afterwards. Hit those two notes harder and “Fatman” might have been a classic. As it stands, Gibson and Goggins are wearing the show, and the Nelms stick to their strict tone without wavering. Whatever else the film is missing, at least it is convinced. [C]

“Fatman” hits theaters on November 13th and on VOD on November 24th.