One Christmas Eve, a long time ago, a small baby at an orphanage crawled into Santa’s bag of toys, only to go undetected and accidentally carried back to Santa’s workshop in the North Pole
Feature Article
This page was created on November 3, 2003 This page was last updated on November 5, 2003 —Review —Feature Article —Trailers, Photos —About this Film —About this Cast —About the Crew —Spiritual Connections —Forum
JON FAVREAU AND THE HOLY GRAIL Feature Article by GREG WRIGHT hjpastorgreg@hotmail.com Pastor and Tolkien Scholar. Greg Wright has written a book on the mythology of J.R.R. Tolkien and has degrees in Theology, English Literature and Computer Science.
Elf is the unlikely family-friendly result of a collaboration between an edgy independent writer/director -- Jon Favreau -- and Saturday Night Live alumnus Will Ferrell. Those who know film or follow entertainment could predict the facets of a Favreau-Ferrell film: street-wise banter, steep irony, four-letter words, and broad, low humor. And those predictions -- in the case of Elf -- would be dead wrong. Instead, Elf almost mocks street smarts, instead paying homage to the naive and good-hearted among us. It avoids irony and aims for sentiment. Five-letter words -- and even six- or seven-letter ones! -- come out of the mouths of the actors, and the humor is broad and goofy, seldom stooping below waist level. How does this happen? How can conventional wisdom be so, well -- wrong? A big influence in shaping the film, said Favreau during recent interviews in New York, was 9/11. The attack caused many New York artists -- like Favreau, who is the offspring of an Italian-Catholic / Jewish NYC union -- to reconsider their priorities. This may seem odd, since it's been two years since the World Trade Center disaster; but that's precisely the typical lead-time necessary to bring a film to the screen. A second factor, says Favreau, is settling down and having kids. "I have two now; I just had another one a couple of months ago," he said. "First of all, you know, the kids determine what you see when you're a parent. So, I didn't want to make a 'parent-punisher'," he elaborated. "And then it became about, 'How can we make this a funny movie'? Can we make it irreverent and edgy without being offensive?" That was a goal which most of the cast and crew had no trouble sharing. "Most of the people involved are parents, too -- and it was really nice to be working on something they knew their kids could see." And that's really one of the keys -- knowing the difference between movies made for adults, and movies made for families. It's easy to pigeonhole an "edgy" artist like Favreau, and assume that he's incapable of sensitivity. But filmmakers always work for the audience -- and with Elf, Favreau demonstrates that he has the tools to appeal to a broader audience. "It's just a matter of limiting yourself a little bit more as a filmmaker -- and as a writer, and as a director. You know, limiting how much you have available to you to make your audience laugh." And Favreau doesn't mean "limiting" in a pejorative sense. "It forces you to become more resourceful in the way that you approach comedy." And as it has often been observed, necessity is the mother of invention. It's one of the reasons that low-budget movies often out-perform the supposed blockbusters. And low-budget was precisely how Elf started out. "Different people had different visions for the film." First, Favreau said, there were "the people who wanted to make it a Will Farrell comedy -- leaning it more towards PG-13 or even R, making it edgy. Especially after Old School came out, there was a 'let's go with what the fans would want'" attitude, an approach which would be typically high-concept / low-budget. "Then there was the PG aspect of it," Favreau continued, "where the studio saw it as an opportunity to make a lot of money -- because if you appeal to that young-kids market, the movie doesn't have to be good. If it's a Christmas movie and it comes out at the right time, people are going to go see it." Still, making lots of money -- to the studios -- means high profits, which again translates into "low budget." In 2002, of course, none of the 20 top-grossing movies were R-rated -- but that doesn't mean every PG or G movie is a good movie, artistically. And this is where Favreau's own sensibilites came in. "Here I am taking a step up into a more commercial project," Favreau intoned, remaining characteristically low-key. "I want to do something I feel just as proud of as anything I would have done in the 'independent' world. "And so it became a constant struggle, right up until the movie tested for the first time." At that point, none of the parties were particularly satisfied. Financial expectations for the film were low. But "when the test audience saw it -- when the kids saw it -- the kids loved it! Then they brought in -- just to see how they would react to it -- that demographic of the teens-to-early-twenties. And they liked it even more, because they appreciated all the cultural references I made, Will's sense of humor. And so it was funny enough, and hip enough -- and there was enough detail in it -- to engage the older young people." Marketing tests, of course, heavily influence a studio's opinion of a movie. And this was where Favreau's little, low-budget Christmas movie became a potential money-maker. "My life became much easier," Favreau said, "and I was able to add even more detail, more animation in the opening sequence, and the songs -- meaning the score. And it all really fell into place." Oddly enough, the movie ends up being both artistically satisfying and an effective vehicle for Farrell. There's just enough comedy, just enough art and just enough of what Favreau called "schmaltz" for Elf "to be a good Christmas movie." If pre-release response to the movie is any indication, Favreau -- and the studio -- should both realize their dreams. "You know, my big goal on this thing -- more so than making money or getting great reviews, or winning any sort of awards -- the thing I really would love," beams Favreau -- "the big affirmation would be if this thing ends up on TV every year. That's the Holy Grail of Christmas movies." Only time will tell, of course. But you never know -- because, as Elf often reminds us, it really is a wonderful life.
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