Bad Santa

Rating

Director

Terry Zwigoff

Screenplay

Glenn Ficarra, John Requa

Length

91 min.

Starring

Billy Bob Thornton, Tony Cox, Brett Kelly, Lauren Graham, Lauren Tom, Bernie Mac, John Ritter

MPAA Rating

R (For pervasive language, strong sexual content and some violence)

Review

Everything that could go wrong has in Bad Santa an unrelenting look at the worst kind of Santa Claus…a drunken one.

Willie (Billy Bob Thornton) is a foul-mouthed alcoholic who works as a department store Santa during the Christmas season. His boss is Marcus (Tony Cox), a dwarf who plays Santa’s helper elf. Their scheme is to knock over the department store by cleverly disabling the security system after everyone leaves for the evening. Willie swears each year that he’ll never do it again the following year but this year, he’s wrong.

Arriving in Phoenix, he encounters a number of strange individuals. Sue (Lauren Graham) is a bartender who has a fascination for having sex with Santa and regardless of Willie’s reckless or disgusting behavior, she can’t but help herself to him. Bob Chipeska (John Ritter) is the general manager of the department store and his chief of security is Gin (Bernie Mac).Then there’s the Kid (Brett Kelly). He’s so obviously mentally retarded that crude jokes made against him don’t have an appreciable effect.

Bad Santa tells Willie’s story as he tries to right the wrongs he’s done as he slowly develops before the audience. He’s not a perfect man and is, in many ways, despicable, but you can’t help but care about his character as you learn more about him.

The performances herein are top notch. Thornton has rarely been better. If not for his performance in The Apostle , I might never have disliked him. His work in The Man Who Wasn’t There is exceptional and here, he lets his mean side out without remorse. Santa is crude, rude and intolerant. He spends much of his time lamenting his own life while putting down the lives of others. Thornton doesn’t flinch and he shouldn’t. His portrayal is realistic, emotional and human. At his side, Kelly gives an absolutely adroit performance as a kid who can’t seem to get a leg up. His father went on a "trip" and has never come back. He’s being raised by his grandmother(cameo appearance by the sublime Cloris Leachman) and he has no social skills whatsoever. Kelly does everything we expect him to do as his maladroit character. Even as Santa uses and abuses him, we see that this is par for the course and he’s just excited to have a friend.

Ritter, who was stolen from entertainment two months before the film’s release, gives his most sensational performance ever. His uptight manager is hilarious as he tip-toes around offensive words and phrases while he’s talking to the unabashed Mac. The two play well together but Ritter steals the show from the supporting cast.

Screenwriters Glenn Ficarra and John Requa have done an excellent job crafting a humorous and topical script. While we learn more about each character, we can’t help but laugh hysterically at some of the mean and unruly things thisBad Santa does. We are torn between revulsion for the disgusting perversion placed upon such an iconic figure and satisfaction that it was done with such reverence and light-heartedness.

Terry Zwigoff, who directed the dark comedy Ghost World , directs Bad Santa with much frivolity. Each scene is expertly laid out and when the film wraps at its unlikely conclusion, the audience will be glad it sat down to such a vile but hilarious picture.

Review Written

September 4, 2004