Dear Santa on TFX: the Farrellys’ worst Christmas (review)

Never funny, never innovative, this freewheeling nian-nian comedy is no gift.

One after its release on Prime Video, Dear Santa is broadcast for the first time unencrypted on television, this Sunday evening on TFX. Despite all the love we have for the Farrellys and Jack Black, we do not recommend this Christmas comedy. Our review:

In the American Father Fouettard genre, we have already had the madman Grinch by Jim Carrey or the iconoclast Bad Santa by Billy Bob Thornton. But here, it’s the Farrelly brothers who are ruining Christmas for us, with Dear Santaa razor-sharp and headless childish tale.

It all starts with an 11-year-old kid, suffering from dyslexia and feeling bad about himself, who writes a letter to Santa Claus to please his depressed mother. Except Liam writes a huge spelling mistake, mixing up the letters “Santa” and “Satan”. Touched by the boy’s attention, the demon arrives from Hell in the closet of his room. And tells him that he will be able to make three wishes come true. Of course, at the end of the last one, he will take his soul…

The Devil therefore becomes the genius ofAladdin – the script keeps referring to it, as if to clear itself of it – in a Christmas story of exhausting platitude. The Farrelly brothers have so often driven us mad (Dumb & Dumber), with raw originality (Crazy for Irene) and explosive humor (Mary at all costs), that it is a little hard to believe that they are the ones behind Dear Santa. Of course, it has been a few years (since Dumb & Dumber in 2014) that the two brothers had no longer made a film together. But Peter Farrelly still won an Oscar in the meantime (for Green Book) and his latest prank, Ricky Stanickyturned out to be downright funny, even impertinent at times. So how did we end up with the cutesy failure of Dear Santa ?

Obviously, Bobby Farrelly (credited as sole director on this one) focused on a family story dotted with good-natured gags. A fable for the youngest, even if it leaves parents who grew up watching it completely speechless. Mary at all costs. Jack Black does everything he can with his demonic cardboard character. He injects his usual energy into it, but the fire never catches. Because the (rare) jokes are weak and no sequence stands out, some of which are downright uncomfortable, like when Liam goes on stage with (the real) Post Malone in concert. Nothing makes sense. The scenario is quite disjointed until its final twist which completely erases the film. At Christmas, treat yourself and watch something else.