Fred Claus Has Sibling Issues

“Fred Claus” is an unusual treatment of the Santa story, which is saying something considering how many times it’s been worked over for film, music, literature, television, radio, and Coca-Cola commercials. Fred Claus is the story of Santa’s older brother, who has to deal with being second best. Although, as the narrator explains early in the story, saints and their family members stop aging, the benefits end there for Fred Claus.

Portrayed by Vince Vaughn, Fred is a fast-talking urbanite trying to get enough money together to open up a casino while simultaneously trying to hang on to Wanda (Rachel Weisz), his girlfriend, who is rapidly losing patience with him. Since the real estate agent can only hold his dream property for a limited amount of time, Fred dresses up as Santa to raise money on the street. This works right up until the other Santas realize that he doesn’t have the required paperwork and chase him all over the city, culminating in a smack down in a toy store.

Fred ends up calling Santa for bail money from the police station, which was kind enough to grant him a second phone call when Wanda didn’t pick up on the first one because she was waiting for him in a restaurant. He also tries to get Santa to give him enough money to get his dream property, which Santa agrees to give him if he comes up to work at the North Pole.

Fred is picked up in his apartment by Willy (John Michael Higgens), an elf, who takes him on a sleigh ride through the stratosphere to the North Pole, where he meets up with Santa Claus, who is actually Paul Giamatti in a fat suit.

I have no end of fun watching various actors try their hands at being iconic figures. Paul Giamatti strikes me as being closer to the “ideal” Santa Claus than Tim Allen was in his portrayal a year ago, but I still have to think that the ultimate Santa Incarnate would be Wilford Brimley. For those of you not familiar with his films, he’s the guy in the Liberty Mutual ads that air during “The Price is Right.”

The major characters in this film fit perfectly with the actors who play them. Tim Allen made a good “befuddled” Santa in the three “Santa Clause” films, but Giamatti fits in well with the “working” Santa, who has an easier time with his job than his family. Vince Vaughn, star of the show, takes a nuanced and conflicted character and plays it well. My only complaint is that he’s too good at talking fast. I had a hard time understanding him.

Inexplicably left out of the film’s promotional material is Kevin Spacey. He plays an efficiency expert sent to the North Pole by a group of shadowy higher-ups intent on making cutbacks to various mythical figures. He has no trouble with this, because he has his own ax to grind as well.

For me, though, what really made this movie work was an odd little scene near the end of what was shaping up to be a decent but unremarkable production. Fred has returned home, with his money, after a fight with Santa, and has checked himself in to a Siblings Anonymous meeting. There, he runs into the siblings of some other famous people – including the real-life brothers of Bill Clinton and Sylvester Stallone – and forces his way into the discussion to try and get his conflict aired out. One of them tries to throw him out of the meeting, since some of them think he’s trying to make a joke out of it, but Frank Stallone suggests that maybe Fred is trying to be metaphorical, and that he views his brother in the same light.

Although this scene didn’t push the movie into a higher category for me, it was still a bolt from the blue on a number of levels. For one thing, it’s hilarious, and a welcome addition to a “comedy” I’d found light of laughs. For another, I was flabbergasted by the premise of Siblings Anonymous, and doubly so when I watched the credits and found out that these really were the brothers of Bill Clinton and Sylvester Stallone. But what really got me was that this made the whole premise of the movie seem that much more real.

A year ago I watched “The Santa Clause III,” and I pronounced it decent. It was about a man who was trying to be the best Santa he could be after he accidentally killed the previous Santa in “The Santa Claus I.” In that mythos, Santa is a hereditary title, like Caesar, and watching Tim Allen screw up repeatedly was one way of portraying Santa as a human being who, though magical, is still human. This film takes a more touching tack, by saying that Santa is a human being who, though magical, is still part of somebody’s family.

Bonus points for the Santa Brawl, Fred’s not-to-scale living arrangements, and Siblings Anonymous. Kevin gives it three and a half stars out of five.