When you see either the Afflecks or Matt Damon in a film, you kind of hope that it is set in Boston.  At least I do.  I appreciate when people work in the places they come from, even in movies.  For Chicagoans, we have Bill Murray and Vince Vaughn, to name a few.  Murray has done a couple productions that take place in the Windy City, but for the most part, if you want to see him in his native element, you can catch him at Cubs games.  Vaughn has made more productions in what I still call my hometown, and this is true for Fred Claus (2007).  The fact that the title character (Vince Vaughn) is living in Chicago made sitting through another Christmas flick bearable, no pun intended.  The rest is pretty standard fare as these things go.

Before Fred Claus is living in the land of my birth, he is a young boy a long time ago in a land far away.  This is not a Star Wars film, but rather shows Fred witnessing the birth of his younger brother, Nick Claus.  Though Fred vows to be a good to his younger sibling, Nick’s saintly countenance gets on Fred’s nerves.  One year, instead of keeping all the presents given him, including a notebook conferred by Fred, Nick decides to give them all to those less fortunate.  Mother Claus (Kathy Bates) begins wondering why Fred cannot be more like Nick.  The last nerve is struck when Nick inadvertently destroys a birdhouse Fred has assembled, knocking down the pine in order to bring it inside and decorate it.  As a result of these things, as an adult, Fred is bitter towards the man who would become Santa Claus (Paul Giamatti).  Indeed, Fred is Nick in reverse, relying on repossessing items in order to make a living.  Further, he is a hustler, willing to tell all manner of outrageous tales in order to avoid responsibility.  This includes with his girlfriend, Wanda Blinkowski (Rachel Weisz), whose birthday he has clearly forgotten and tries to cover up with saying the name of the first billboard for a restaurant he spots.  His significant other is not the only person Fred is conning.  He is trying to open an off-track betting (OTB) site in downtown Chicago (which are a thing in that area), but does not have the money.  He tells the landlord he will come up with the funds, though he has no real plan for doing so.  It being close to the holidays, he sets up with the rest of people dressed as Santa around the city soliciting donations to charity.  They do not take kindly to him muscling in on their territory.  Between that and the fact that he is not licensed to collect funds in this manner, all leads to his arrest after being chased by a pack of Kris Kringle impersonators.  Not only is he behind bars, but he misses dinner with Wanda, which means she is not keen to post his bail.  Seeing no other alternative, Fred turns to his estranged brother.  Hearing receptiveness in Nick’s voice, despite their alienation, Fred tries to also get the amount he needs for his OTB.  With Mrs. Annette Clause (Miranda Richardson) in Nick’s ear, the real Santa tells his older brother that Fred will have to earn his funding in the North Pole.  That evening, Willie (John Michael Higgins), one of Nick’s elves, picks up Fred in a sled pulled by reindeer.  Once there, Fred is assigned to going through the naughty and nice lists, reviewing each file to make sure that the right kids will be receiving gifts this year.  He is not the only newcomer to Santa’s village.  Supposedly representing a council of magic creatures (I guess?) is efficiency expert Clyde Archibald Northcutt (Kevin Spacey).  He has come to Santa’s Village to assess rumors that toy production is lagging.  If he finds that things are not up to his exacting standards, based on some kind of three strike system, he has the power (from somewhere) to shut down Santa’s entire operation.  Nick is dedicated to his job and thus is deathly afraid of what Clyde could do.  In Fred, Clyde sees a potential pathway to putting an end to Christmas, which is the expert’s ulterior motive.  As it is later revealed, Clyde is bitter towards Santa and the entire holiday because he did not get a gift he wanted as a child.  As such, when Clyde witnesses Fred leading the elves in a dance party instead of working, that is strike one.  A second comes when Clyde witnesses the lack of harmony in the Claus family, first brought on when Fred has dinner with his parents and Mother Claus is still passive aggressive towards her oldest son.  It carries over into when a therapist is brought in to help the situation.  In anger, Fred goes back to his desk and starts leafing through piles until he finds the folder belonging to Samuel “Slam” Gibbons (Bobb’e J. Thompson).  Slam is a boy that lives in Fred’s building in Chicago.  Fred has a soft spot for the kid, and knows about his unfortunate circumstances.  Yet, Slam had recently gone to the top of the naughty list when he got into a fight in an orphanage based on shotty advice he received from Fred.  Thus, Fred marks him nice, and everyone else that is supposed to be labeled otherwise.  This results in the entire operation being backed up with an overload of toy requests, and Clyde puts a halt to production.  Nick is mad at Fred, injuring his back after a fight between them, but gives his older brother a parting gift anyway.  Fred opens it back in Chicago, and it is birdhouse like the one broken all those years ago when Nick cut down the tree.  Realizing his terrible behavior, Fred makes the trek back north using the money Nick had given him.  With Nick laid up and more toy requests than they can fulfill, Fred simplifies the operation to baseball bats and hula-hoops, and takes to the skies with Willie to complete the job.  Clyde is furious about this turn of events, but Nick apologizes for his oversight long ago by giving Clyde the missing gift.  With this, Fred returns to Chicago and makes amends with Wanda, and everyone lives happily ever after.

Speaking of living happily ever after, there is one aspect of Fred Claus that bugs me.  Clearly, the story starts hundreds of years ago, and we are used to Santa Claus being immortal.  Does this also mean that Fred cannot die?  How would that work with his relationship with Wanda?  The film raises these questions, but it also answers some about aspect of the Kris Kringle myths that have separately bothered me.  Namely, it is the naughty and nice list, and my issues with it are based on my Catholic faith.  First, it should be noted that this concept does make some sense.  Like getting a present based on merit, the Church has always taught that actions have consequences.  The Scripture on which we largely rely for this teaching is James 2:14-26.  The main one is verse 17, which states, “So also faith of itself, if it does not have works, is dead.”  Put more simply, what we do matters, particularly if you have Faith.  The person that does not have the power to determine the weight of those works is Santa Claus, though this should be obvious since, despite this movie, he is an absurd myth perpetuated by a society afraid to acknowledge the existence of God.  For reasons too complicated to explain in this venue, it is easier to imagine a magical being living in the North Pole who knows when we are awake or sleeping.  What this nonsense has largely ignored, and this film addresses, is the wrongness of landing on the naughty list.  While there are some examples of Christmas movies of children going bad then becoming good, God says differently.  He created all of us good.  It is our God-given capacity for good, when it is acknowledged and allowed to guide us, that makes the naughty list mean spirited and dare I say anti-Christmas.  Such judgments are best left up to God, but ultimately Fred is correct is stamping everyone as nice because we all have the opportunity to do better.

The better part of Fred Claus was seeing all the scenes of Chicago.  Even still, this is dangerous for someone who knows the city and sees geographic impossibilities from scene to scene.  The rest is about is inoffensive and silly as the rest of its cinematic cousins.  So, yawn.