This movie is just so wrong. It's really wrong. It's sick. It's perverse. It has a black lump of coal where its heart should be. And I love it dearly for all that.
Bad Santa is not a family picture. It is the sort of movie I won't be willing to show my son until he hits his thirties. But it is the sort of movie I will take delighted pleasure in watching whenever he's not around. It is about a mean drunk named Willie T. Soke (Billy Bob Thornton) who takes a job every year as a mall Santa with his partner Marcus (Tony Cox), a black dwarf who plays an elf, so that they can rob the place blind on Christmas. Marcus is the brains of the outfit and he would do without Willie if he could, but Willie knows how to crack safes. That means Marcus has to try and keep Willie out of trouble for a month so that they don't get fired before completing the job.
Willie is a mess. He talks about his father beating him as a kid. He is always drinking. The only time he puts a bottle down is when he has emptied it. He swears constantly, including to the kids. He looks like hell and has been known to piss his pants. But on the bright side, he has a violent temper. In other words, he's the last person you want around you, never mind playing Santa at the mall. Psychiatrists will reap small fortunes dealing with the damage he causes to small children.
The movie is hysterically funny because of Willie's relentless bad behavior. Billy Bob Thornton makes him into a horrendous excuse for a human and never lets up. Willie doesn't get better. He meets a kid who attaches himself to this sorry Santa. Normally you would expect the kid to redeem him. Valuable life lessons would be learned. Not here. Willie is a miserable SOB from start to finish. The closest he comes to showing some heart is really just a pause in his usual behavior. This is a character and a movie that make no apologies for bad behavior or for crossing boundaries of decorum.
The characters are all of the same relentless disturbing nature. Marcus is all about the loot and will do anything to get it. The mall security chief (Bernie Mac) looks out for himself only and will step on anyone to do it. Willie finds a girlfriend (Lauren Graham) of sorts in a woman who has a fetish for guys in Santa suits. And then there is the kid (Brett Kelly). He is some bizarre stalker more than a kid. He is desperately lonely and clutches on to Willie as his best friend, treating him like a real Santa, overwhelming evidence to the contrary. There is virtually no amount of abuse he won't accept for a moment of Willie's time. His unwavering stare would be right at home in many a horror flick.
Take a look at the people behind this movie and you start to understand its dark and wickedly funny style. The producers are the Coen brothers, guys responsible for movies like The Big Lebowski, Fargo and the recent Intolerable Cruelty. Then there is the director, Terry Zwigoff, who has made Crumb and Ghost World, two movies that deal heavily with isolation, self-loathing and depression. They can give this movie just enough emotional weight to somehow make these characters ring true. They may be extremes but they never seem false.
Let's be absolutely clear. This is not a family film. If you take small children to it, be prepared to be labeled a bad parent. There is nothing here for kids. This is a Christmas story for adults. Adults who get positively sickened at the entire season and want to see a movie that throws that negative energy at the screen with wild abandon. What it does extremely well is serve as a litmus test for audiences. Those who hate it, and there will be plenty of them, will never get past the swearing and bad behavior. They will be offended at the mere existence of the characters. For them, making a movie about such people is disgraceful. Those who love it, and there will be many as this is not a movie to waffle over, will not care that such people are the subject of a movie and will delight in watching them handled with such devious care. If for you, the important thing is how well a movie is made rather than what it is about, you should have a blast with Bad Santa.
- John Shea
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