There was a time when Jack Black reuniting with the Farrelly brothers to make a family comedy would have made a few cultural waves. This is not that time. Most people probably have no idea that Bobby Farrelly's "Dear Santa" has been buried on Paramount+, released on a Monday with almost no promotion at all. Why? The marketing team probably had no idea how to sell a movie that seems resolutely made for no one. Stuck somewhere between kids movie and Farrelly adult comedy, "Dear Santa" is a movie made by people who have absolutely no idea what it's like to be in middle school in 2024. Not only do they not understand 11-year-olds (and I have one, so I can speak with a little expertise), I'm not sure they've ever even met one.
Co-written by Peter Farrelly and directed by his brother Bobby Farrelly, "Dear Santa" is the story of a dyslexic sixth grader named Liam (Robert Timothy Smith) who still believes in Jolly St. Nick and sends him a letter every year. The dyslexia is important (and so cheaply used in this often exploitative and manipulative dreck) because Liam addresses his letter to "Satan" instead of "Santa" (yes, seriously). Guess who responds? A heavily bearded and horned Jack Black as the other man in red, who sorta torments and sorta befriends Liam. One of many problems with this film's uncertain tone is that it can't even figure out how to play the Satan/Liam relationship. One would think a film about a child selling his soul to the devil for three wishes would have a bit of a darker edge than a shart joke, but one would be wrong.
By and large, "Dear Santa" feels as if someone took a Diary of a Wimpy Kid book and added some truly weird Satanic mythology. New-in-town Liam has a crush on a girl at school named Emma (Kal Cech) and a new friend named Gibby (Jaden Carson Baker). He battles with an obnoxious teacher named Mr. Charles (P.J. Byrne), who Satan gets revenge on by giving him instant IBS. When Liam's parents (Brianne Howey & Hayes MacArthur) realize that Liam thinks he's talking to Satan, they bring in a child psychologist (a depressingly wasted Keegan-Michael Key) to solve the problem. Still, it's all just a route to a truly cheap piece of manipulative writing about mom and dad grieving the loss of Liam's brother (that ends on an astonishingly grotesque note). Don't get me started on the extended Post Malone cameo that's built around the idea that "Congratulations" is one of the best songs ever written. It's so weird.
And yet also so bland. Nearly every scene in "Dear Santa" has something to it that sounds rhythmically off, whether it's a clunky joke, a manipulative line of dialogue, or the sense that someone thinks 11-year-olds are more like 16-year-olds. It may not seem like a big difference to people without children but there's absolutely nothing believable about Liam and his group of friends, and it's not just them all going to a Post Malone concert seemingly unaccompanied by adults or the weird love triangle that feels way more high school than middle.
All of the unbelievable aspects of "Dear Santa" would be forgivable if it was just funny or sweet. It's neither. Black is having fun—he always does—and there's a late film cameo that brings in another Farrelly all-star that's mildly entertaining, but there's no way that children or the parents who stumble on this during this holiday week have any memory of it by Christmas this year, much less for years to come.
On Paramount+ now.
