Christmas night viewing...Elf

    I was familiar with the movie, of course, but I'd never watched it. But it seemed relevant in keeping with the theme of one of this year's Christmas cards. And the movie happened to be just starting. If I were to write a review, I would say the first three quarters of the movie was surprisingly sweet and tender, with the addition of subtle humor as well as the broader type. 

   So many things remind me of Dave and our early dating years. The scene where he is on a date with Jovie was a close approximation of one of our first dates. Buddy is showing her the  town, as if his discoveries of NYC are brand new to all, not just him, and he repeats with her the magical quality of the city, she joining him in the delights of revolving doors and other activities. On our second date, Dave wanted to go dancing at an established hotel in downtown Albany, the Sheraton perhaps.   He  had recently moved to the area and had attended an event there which was great, he said. We walked into the hotel and maybe we sat down and ordered a drink. There was dancing all right; the floor was occupied by what seemed like elderly couples formally dressed, kind of a stodgy clientele, it appeared. Dave apprised the situation and said not for us and we left, within minutes of getting there. We then went to four other places in the course of an hour. Dave was all about making a good first impression, and I was impressed; I thought he was kind of nuts.

    Back to Elf, which struck a human chord even in the realm of fantasy. But the last half hour did not hold the same consistency. The earlier plot appears to have been taken over by a different team of writers, or maybe they realized that the plot  could not be favorably resolved in the same mode, or else they needed to wrap it up quickly. Hence, the Central Park chaotic action scene with bad guys, a needy Santa, and a lot of quick concessions. My thought is that an earlier decision about how the story would end was to have Buddy happen on the unfinished Children's  Book and develop  a satisfying  conclusion to the mangled book, and then maybe go on to write other best-selling children's books. Instead of incorporating this idea which seemed to have been building up, the movie went into bizarre and chaotic episodes of unlikely behaviors. The conclusion did reference this idea, but as an afterthought.

   I read a while ago that most movie making now is the work of people deeply into the drug culture. I can visualize them sitting at a table, much as portrayed in Elf, and wasted, saying, "Let's put this baby to bed."