bad santa (2003) Review
Bad Santa is a wall-to-wall hilarious and prescient cautionary tale about the human condition and how we are all a product of our environments, for better or worse. No one is immune. Billy Bob Thornton’s Willie, the titular Santa, has endured a life so rife with abuse and mistreatment that no matter how terribly he behaves he never stops being a sympathetic figure. It’s difficult to write such a character and I image even harder to portray on screen. Willie is an unapologetic drunk, con artist, and generally horrible person but still very likable. Thornton’s performance is so endearing that for many Bad Santa is a Christmas staple. You can count me amongst that group. Willie wants to be a better person. He just needs a little extra motivation in the form of a bullied and neglected kid tragically named Thurman Merman that may or may not suffer from mental illness. The relationship between Willie and Thurman is the primary reason any of us enjoy or remember this film. We all went to school with a Thurman. Bad Santa provides stinging commentary on the consumerization of the holiday season but the real message here is that each of us has a responsibility to help others help themselves. No one is an island. It takes a while to get there but Willie has a darkly satisfying arc that concludes on an uplifting note. I positively love the fact that this firmly R-rated film centering around a relentlessly ornery, serial fornicator is essentially A Christmas Carol in disguise. RIP John Ritter.
Bad Santa receives a score of 8/10 for general audiences and a 9/10 if you can see through the vulgarity and recognize the heartwarming tale underneath.