The satirical elements of Fatman are its biggest success. It takes the idea of Santa Claus and incorporates him into the modern world. A world full of the commercialization of Christmas. He laments the idea that he has to be Santa for business reasons, like having to pay the electric bill in his house rather than it being something he wants to do. It is a deconstruction of the Santa legend and shows what his workshop would be if it were a real thing. The premise of this movie might imply an action packed comedy. It is more like a satirical drama as there isn't much action until the last 20 minutes or so and there are few laugh out loud moments. Without Mel Gibson and Walton Goggins this movie would not work. They carry this movie with their screen presence and Gibson shows how great of a dramatic actor he still can be at times.
Synopsis: A rowdy, unorthodox Santa Claus (Mel Gibson) is fighting to save his declining business. Meanwhile, Billy (Chance Hurstfield), a neglected and precocious 12-year-old, hires a hitman (Walton Goggins) to kill Santa after receiving a lump of coal in his stocking.
I like how this movie starts and how Santa acts throughout. Mel Gibson is the perfect person for playing this kind of pessimistic and gruff Santa Claus. His wife played by Marianne Jean-Baptiste acts as his moral compass and someone who gives him reassurance. They have a conversation at one point about Christmas being the biggest stimulus check in the world yet they can't get money for their power. He also talks about half of the kids getting coal instead of presents and that volume isn't good enough for the government. Yet what do kids mostly want these days? Material things. Santa laments the days where kids would probably ask for things they needed rather than things they wanted. The two characters of Jonathan Miller (Walton Goggins) and Billy Wenan (Chance Hurstfield) are representations of this in different ways.
Billy is a spoiled kid who cannot accept not getting what he wants. When he is the runner-up to the science fair he has his personal assassin, Miller, kidnap the girl who beat him and demand she tell the school she cheated and give the first place ribbon to him. He uses his grandmother's accounts to finance things and when his grandmother learns of this he attempts to poison her with fentanyl. He later hires Miller to kill Santa Claus after he gets coal for Christmas. His father is absent from his life which does have something to do with his actions. The same goes for Miller who implies that he had an abusive childhood. Santa later says that he couldn't replace his parents. That might also be something this Santa laments as he can only give real, physical gifts and he can't be magical except in the ways of knowing who everyone is and what they want. That might be what messes with his mind so much in this movie. Miller turns inward on himself in an unusual way. He collects toys that are or once were a prized possession of a child. He collects the toys that Santa gives them. His prized possession: a small toy police car, the only gift he ever got from Santa.
Gibson's, Gobbins', and Hurstfield's acting make this movie better than it should be. The comedy in this is more satirical than actually funny. Gibson shows some great dramatic acting when he calls his elves in early to help the military. He seems physically pained that this is what his job has come to. Later you see the empathy in his face when he reads the letters from kids thanking him. This revitalizes him in more ways than one. Earlier on in the movie he gets hit by a gunshot while driving his sleigh. Later when he gets more fatal wounds from something it doesn't seem to affect him as much. I think his Christmas spirit determines both how happy he is but also how the magical elements work. Goggins has charisma anytime he is on screen. Some of the more thrilling moments were him trying to get information and you almost don't want him to kill the people he gets information from. You actually like him because he's Walton Goggins but he kills the people anyway. Some of the road movie and detective elements with him are fun. Seeing him driving, peeing, and going to gas stations was an unnecessary montage but that might be the point. The drive from the United States to Canada to Alaska is a long one. I like how cunning he is when he asks about the car Santa drives by knowing that someone will tell him the correct car if he says the wrong one. Hurstfield plays a bratty, privileged kid well. The second I saw him I wanted to shove him through a wood chipper. At the end though he shows some dramatic heft and you can see both the fear and how pathetic he is when Santa calls him out for who he really is.
As I said before I like how this deals with the commercialization of Christmas. The idea of Santa's address being on the mail and that being the only way he can be communicated with is fun. The elves having the diet of only carbs and sugars, and only taking 20 minute naps while working 24 hours is fun. Santa's workshop is shown to be more industrial, like any normal warehouse and this really is a deconstruction of the legend of Santa Claus. He shows the magical powers you would expect like being able to know who anyone is and what they want like when he goes to the bar and dissuades that one man from cheating on his wife. If I wanted more from this movie it was more action and more comedy as this movie does feel like it is in weird limbo at times but I've still never seen anything quite like it.
When the action starts at the end it is great. Seeing Miller methodically and precisely take out all the military people is great and there are blood squibs aplenty. The final shootout between him and Santa is like something out of Open Range. I enjoy that long and wide, bird's eye view shot of them staring each other down.
Rating: 7/10
Trivia: The climactic shootout sequence took four days to film, with the temperatures hitting as low as -36 celsius.
Clips: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2qhZtEycLw&list=PLZbXA4lyCtqpi6J6TdIkf4FqHvaW4UDNG
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