Dear Santa

Plot

Eleven year old Liam, along with mum and dad Molly and Bill – have recently relocated town due to a traumatic event in the family (it is later revealed that his younger brother Spenser was killed in an accident, while Bill was out golfing and Molly was ‘supposed’ to be watching the boys).

Suffering from dyslexia, he is somewhat withdrawn, going as far to refuse to introduce his best friend Gibby to them, and harbors a crush on a nice girl in his class Emma.

Still somewhat believing in Santa, he writes him a letter (more in a moment) but mistakenly mis-spells it as Satan…

When Satan shows up that night, he gifts Liam 3 wishes… but there’s a catch, if he goes ahead, Satan gets his soul…

Direction

Directed by one half of the global comedy super directors “The Farrelly Brothers” Bobby.

Cast/Characters

Jack Black plays Satan.

Robert Timothy Smith plays Liam.

Brianne Howey and Hayes MacArthur play Liam’s parents Molly and Bill.

Jaden Carson Baker plays Liam’s best friend Gibby, and Kai Marie Cech plays Emma – the object of his affection.

Austin Post, plays himself (Post Malone), and Keegan-Michael Key plays Dr Finkleman – a therapist Liam’s parents call to treat him.

Breakdown

Sigh…

This was not good. The narrative wasn’t overly bad (until the third act), but it sadly had some (and I hate to shit on kids) – very poor performances from essentially all the cast.

It did not portray special needs kids in a proper way at all, and it felt like Liam’s dyslexia was handled poorly.

The parenting is hands down the worst parents to be on screen ever – the dad clearly treats his kid like trash – and the mum strokes his ego saying what a good dad he is. The kids are able to run around – going to a freaking Post Malone concert (was this just an advert for Post Malone???) without the parents realising… ‘where is my kid?’ – Then we discover that Liam had a younger brother who died, because the mum wasn’t watching them???

There are very well written films where kids are the main focus of the story (Stand by Me), but the kids here are poorly written, given clearly bad direction notes,. They are also put in ‘inappropriate’ moments, like dating, kissing etc.

The pacing is terrible, with Satan realising the mistake from the get go, and Liam discovering he’s not Santa but Satan a few minutes later.

The inclusion of such a comedic talent like KMK should have been fun, but his Dr is written badly, and not a single chuckle was shed in his moments on screen.

The jokes when they do occur (like the teacher getting “IBS” from Satan are obviously written for small children – in an American PG-13 movie). They are not funny.

The forced emotion is exactly that, with a painful

moment with Liam’s ‘mum and dad’. I actually hadn’t even clocked their names until this scene.

The real egregious moment comes in the final 5 minutes, when “Satan” (who is revealed to be an underling of the REAL Satan (an unfunny cameo by Ben Stiller) gives Liam his final wish… That his brother Spenser can come back to life….

The parents act so nonchalant about this, like its just another day, but other characters then discuss ‘what are we going to tell your girlfriend about your dead brother… who is now alive??

Did anyone actually think this was a good idea????

Overall

This was truly painful to watch.

From the poor narrative, poor supporting cast, the forced emotion, and quite frankly one of the most egregious endings in cinema history… this is a strong DO NOT recommend.

Terrible. I was almost going to give it a 2/5 (due to some okay jokes about modern life (fake news and COVID) and Liam was fairly fun at the start of the third act, but that ending ruined what little good there was.

1/5 (and that’s generous)

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