Little pleasures in ELF

ELF

Director: Jon Faveau

Cast: Will Ferrell, James Caan, Zooey Deschanel, Mary Steenburgen, Daniel Tay, Edward Asner, Bob Newhart

Cert: PG.

You have to suspend your critical faculties when considering Yuletide releases; they are seldom from the top drawer and the best you can hope for is that you won't end up leaning over your seat shouting "Hughie!"

Here, in a film which actually isn't the worst seasonal story you have ever seen, we have grumpy Scrooge-like James Caan, who is surprisingly a publisher of children's books, discovering he has a son, who found himself in Santa's sack and raised by elves - don't ask, just read on - and now with a desire to track down his dad.

Ferrell does well as the now adult son - who still retains a childlike outlook on life - and there are terrific contributions from Newhart and Asner and a nice romantic offering from Deschenel.

It's not a great film, you understand, but there have been many worse seasonal screen prezzies.

Star Rating: 2/5