ELF

Starring: Will Ferrell, James Caan, Ed Asner, Mary Steenburgen. Directed By: Jon Favreau. Running Time: 95 minutes.

It's not easy to make a Christmas classic. For every A Charlie Brown Christmas and Miracle on 34th Street, there are countless films that put special effects where their hearts ought to be. Elf is a rare exception. With genuine charm and the immense likability of its star, Elf gives holiday cheer a good name. Will Ferrell stars as Buddy, a human raised by elves at the North Pole.

But the over-six-foot-tall Buddy literally does not fit in, and he ventures to New York (via the seven levels of the Candy Cane forest, the sea of swirly, twirly gum drops, and the Lincoln Tunnel) where he is reunited with Walter, his biological father (James Caan), a children's book editor, who was not aware of Buddy's existence.

Clad in yellow tights and a whimsical elfin coat, Buddy's childlike enthusiasm for all things sugar and all things Christmas converts cynics like Walter, melts the heart of Jovie (indie queen Zooey Deschanel), a wary department store clerk, and inspires the faith that is needed to power Santa's sleigh. There are warm and wonderful scenes, including Buddy and Jovie's impromptu duet of "Baby, It's Cold Outside," and Buddy's inevitable tangle with a department store Santa ("You sit on a throne of lies," Buddy tells the imposter).

The supporting cast is another of this film's gifts that keeps on giving: Mary Steenburgen as Walter's very understanding wife; Bob Newhart as Walter's adoptive elf father; Ed Asner as Santa; and real-life dwarf Peter Dinklage as an author who doesn't much appreciate Buddy's mistaking him for one of Santa’s helpers.

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