Fred Claus

Fred Claus
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	David Dobkin
Screenplay by	Dan Fogelman
Story by	Jessie Nelson Dan Fogelman
Produced by	Joel Silver Jessie Nelson David Dobkin
Starring	Vince Vaughn Paul Giamatti Miranda Richardson John Michael Higgins Elizabeth Banks Rachel Weisz Kathy Bates Kevin Spacey
Cinematography	Remi Adefarasin
Edited by	Mark Livolsi
Music by	Christophe Beck
Production company	Silver Pictures
Distributed by	Warner Bros. Pictures
Release date	November 9, 2007 (2007-11-09)
Running time	116 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$100 million
Box office	$97.8 million

Fred Claus is a 2007 American Christmas comedy film directed by David Dobkin, written by Dan Fogelman from a story by Fogelman and Jessie Nelson, and starring Vince Vaughn, Paul Giamatti, Miranda Richardson, John Michael Higgins, Elizabeth Banks, Rachel Weisz, Kathy Bates, Trevor Peacock, Ludacris, and Kevin Spacey. The film was first announced in October 2005 with Mike Mitchell attached to direct. The film was released in the United States on November 9, 2007 by Warner Bros. Pictures. It is loosely based on the poem "A legend of Santa and his brother Fred" written by Donald Henkel. It received negative reviews from critics and grossed $97 million worldwide against the production budget of $100 million.

Plot

In the Middle Ages, young Fred Claus grows up in the shadow of his younger brother Nick. Nick's selfless and kind attitude constantly wins the approval of his family over Fred, causing a strained relationship that is permanently damaged when Nick cuts down a tree, inadvertently destroying the bird house in which Fred's bird named Chirp Chirp lived. Due to Nick's generous and helpful personality, he is deemed a Saint, and the family is gifted with immortality.

In the present, Nick has become the modern-day Santa Claus, delivering gifts to the children of the world, while Fred has become a repossession agent in Chicago; he lives alone and is friends with orphan Samuel "Slam" Gibbons. After his girlfriend Wanda breaks up with him, Fred is arrested for impersonating a Salvation Army employee in an attempt to raise seed money for an illegal casino plan, and he is fired from work. Fred asks Nick for bail and seed money. Nick only agrees on the condition that Fred comes to the North Pole to work for the money; Slam asks Fred to pretend to be his father but ends up being taken away and sent to an orphanage.

Head Elf Willie escorts Fred to the North Pole. Nick gives Fred the task of assigning children as naughty or nice based on their behavior. Efficiency expert Clyde Northcutt, from an agency which monitors the activities of supernatural entities, arrives to analyze the North Pole's dwindling performance on a three-strike assessment. Fred picks a fight with the workshop's DJ Donnie after he plays "Here Comes Santa Claus" on repeat, causing a disruption that leads to Northcutt assigning the North Pole their first strike. Nick sandbags Fred into having dinner that evening with their parents.

Later that night, Northcutt shreds the children's letters. Fred is falsely blamed for "losing" the letters, and the lack of backup copies leads to a second strike. Not believing Fred's denials, Nick has security abduct Fred, and brings him to an intervention, attended by their parents, Nick's wife Annette, Wanda, and a psychologist. Angered by Fred's self-centeredness and his obnoxious attitude, Wanda leaves. Fred grows upset by her departure from the intervention and insults Nick and lambasts his parents for having favoritism. Following the intervention, Northcutt messes with Fred’s head, causing further resentment of Nick. Later, Fred sees Slam at the top of the Naughty List; Fred realizes his bad behavior is due to being bullied at the orphanage. He assigns every naughty child as nice.

The brothers get into a fight over Fred's decision, which leads to Nick injuring his back. Unable to now produce enough gifts for every good child, the North Pole falls far behind schedule, leading Northcutt to assign the third strike, shutting down the workshop. Fred leaves, taking his money and a gift from Nick. Fred opens his gift: a replica of the birdhouse Chirp Chirp lived in and a note from Nick apologizing for cutting down the tree. With a change of heart, Fred uses the seed money to make his way back to the North Pole.

Fred motivates the elves to make as many gifts as possible, having them focus on simple toys. Because of his injury, Nick is unable to deliver gifts. Feeling guilty, Fred decides to deliver the presents (as only a Claus can deliver the gifts). He reminds Nick that naughty kids aren't bad, but good kids going through bad situations, and that every child deserves a gift on Christmas. Fred gets the workshop to quickly make simple gifts so that every child gets a toy. Fred and Willie begin to deliver the gifts, but Northcutt sabotages their efforts and fires the elves. Nick confronts Northcutt and realizes he was also bullied as a child, leading him to lash out at others. Nick apologizes to Northcutt for putting him at the top of the Naughty List in 1968 and gives him the Superman cape he had asked for as a child.

Disguised as Santa, Fred visits Slam and gives him the dog he wanted for Christmas and gives Slam advice to become a better person. After every gift is delivered, Fred returns to the North Pole while Willie finally starts a relationship with the tall elf, Charlene, Santa's "little" helper. Fred reconciles with Wanda and takes her to Paris. The next Christmas, Fred and Nick have made amends and he has hired a now-reformed Northcutt to work at the North Pole while Slam is adopted. On New Year’s Eve the Claus family reunite, and Chirp Chirp finally returns to the Clauses and lives in the birdhouse Nick gave Fred.

Cast

• Vince Vaughn as Frederick "Fred" Claus
  • Jordon Hull as 6 year old Fred
  • Liam James as 12 year old Fred
• Paul Giamatti as Nicholas "Nick"/"Santa" Claus
  • Theo Stevenson as 6 year old Nick
• Miranda Richardson as Mrs. Annette Claus, Nick's wife.
• Kathy Bates and Trevor Peacock as Mother and Father Claus, Fred and Nick's parents. Peacock also serves as the narrator.
• Rachel Weisz as Wanda Blinkowski, Fred's girlfriend and a parking enforcement officer.
• John Michael Higgins as Willie, Nick's head elf whom Fred befriends and helps to hook up with Charlene.
• Elizabeth Banks as Charlene, a tall, blonde elf with whom Willie becomes enamored.
• Kevin Spacey as Clyde Archibald Northcutt, an efficiency expert who comes to assess the situation at the North Pole.
• Ludacris as DJ Donnie
• Jeremy Swift as Bob Elf
• Elizabeth Berrington as Linda Elf
• Bobb'e J. Thompson as Samuel "Slam" Gibbons, a young orphan boy that Fred mentors.
• Allan Corduner as Dr. Greg Goldfarb
• Dylan Minnette, Justin McEwen, and Tyler Kelley as orphanage kids
• Jeffrey Dean Morgan (cameo) as unnamed man getting parking ticket.
• Frank Stallone, Roger Clinton Jr., and Stephen Baldwin as themselves at a Siblings Anonymous meeting Fred attends
• Ethan Cutkosky as Carl
• Burn Gorman as an Elf

Soundtrack

Original music is composed by Christophe Beck, although portions of Alan Silvestri's Mouse Hunt score also appear. In addition to starring in the film, Ludacris contributed an original song titled "Ludacrismas", which includes portions of "Here Comes Santa Claus". The film also features Elvis Presley's 1969 single "Rubberneckin'".

Reception

Critical response

As of October 2021, Fred Claus holds an approval rating of 21% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 143 reviews, with an average rating of 4.3/10. The website's critics consensus states: "A slew of talent is wasted in this contrived and overly sentimental Christmas film, which can't quite get the balance between slapstick humor and schmaltzy uplift." On Metacritic it has a weighted average score of 42 out of 100 based on 31 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale.

Box office

The film grossed $18,515,473 in its first weekend, and closed on February 14, 2008 with a final gross of $72,006,777 in North America and another $25,831,572 in other territories for a total worldwide gross of $97,838,349. The film became number 1 in the UK on its first weekend, bringing in £1.93m. It held the top spot for one week until it was surpassed by The Golden Compass.

Home media

The film was released on DVD and Blu-ray on November 25, 2008.

See also

• List of Christmas films
• Santa Claus in film

External links

• Official website
• Fred Claus at IMDb
• Fred Claus at AllMovie
• Fred Claus at the TCM Movie Database
• Fred Claus at the AFI Catalog of Feature Films