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BLIZZARD
Setting out to make a Christmas movie is risky for a director. The Yuletide genre carries a great weight of convention, and the foolish filmmaker who strays from the path is likely to be crushed by that glacial mass. Stick too closely to it, however, and the film stumbles into a crevasse of cliches. It is not a forgiving territory, which is why many so-called Christmas movies are really just garden-variety comedies or dramas dressed up in tinsel. Some of the best -- It's a Wonderful Life springs to mind -- are not even about Christmas, for all their seasonal charm. First-time director LeVar Burton boldly goes into that realm, however, and emerges with something at once charming and unique. Blizzard opens with the Princess Bride gambit -- elder, slightly dotty relative arrives at home of skeptical youngster and spins intricate tale. We in the audience are, by proxy, the movie's 10-year-old Jess; we've heard a lot of drab tales in this darkened room, we tell Aunt Millie (Brenda Blethyn), so you'll forgive us a little cynicism. The yarn is a good one, however. It starts many years ago, with another 10-year-old, Katie (Zoe Warner), growing up poor in the shadow of two obnoxious brothers. Above all else she loves skating, and one day at the rink a stern Germanic gentlemen stops her with the words: "You are wearing the wrong skates." Turns out he's an Olympic gold medallist in his twilight years, and wants to take on a pupil. He has chosen Katie. Meanwhile, at the North Pole (which bears a striking resemblance to old Quebec City, with the Chateau Frontenac doubling as Santa's castle), a baby reindeer, Blizzard, is born. Her parents are Blitzen and Delphi (Mrs. Blitzen, I presume), and she has the voice and insouciance of Whoopi Goldberg. While Blizzard doesn't have a shiny nose, the fact that she's a girl with funny-looking hair is enough to cause the others in the herd to give her a hard time. (Ever notice that reindeer rival humans as the least tolerant species on the planet? Thank goodness they don't have opposable thumbs.) Like many a mistreated ruminant, Blizzard is soon stirring up trouble, taking to the air without a flight plan, becoming invisible, what have you. The movie postulates three magic reindeer gifts: flight, which everyone knows about; invisibility, which explains why we never see them flying; and the ability to sense kids in woe and find them. This power is described by several characters as "empathic navigation -- but only the Donner lineage is supposed to have it," an unfathomably clunky line until you remember that director Burton used to play Lt.-Comm. Geordi LaForge on Star Trek, never a show to shy away from using multi-syllabic exposition to get out of a tight corner. Blizzard has all three powers, and uses them to come to the aid of Katie, who has moved to a new town with her family and is having a similarly hard time fitting in. Blizzard flies her back to her old rink for a little night skating practice, gives her the confidence to approach the other girls, and -- in a strict breach of Polar law -- "borrows" some skates from Santa's workshop for the day of the big figure skating contest. For these transgressions, Blizzard faces grounding and possible banishment. (Banishment from the frozen north? Is that punishment?) Santa is played by Christopher Plummer, and he cuts a stern, slightly terrifying figure, part Gandalf, more than a little King Lear. I'm not sure I'd be comfortable with him climbing down my chimney, but it's nice to see an actor put on the red coat and do something more than laugh and shake like a bowl full of jelly. Plummer is never less than imperious, and it makes for the most memorable Claus I've seen this season (caveat: I've yet to see Bad Santa ). His right-hand elf is Archimedes (Kevin Pollak) -- another refugee from Shakespearean central casting, he seems to be Malvolio from Twelfth Night. Sneering, bureaucratic and power-hungry, he would probably like to see Blizzard hang if the Pole allowed capital punishment. He's balanced out by Jonathan Wilson, the reindeer's best elf friend and oft-ignored conscience. Warner, who is 15 but looks younger, has a great deal of screen time but never grows shrill or tiresome through her travails. Blizzard mixes the unhappy reindeer and unhappy child stories into a frothy concoction that never gets too syrupy. The special effects are wildly uneven: In most of the flying scenes the reindeer look like they've been slung under a crane, but there is also a pairs skating scene, Katie twirling about on the ice and Blizzard flying low beside her like a levitating Zamboni, that is a joy to watch. Adults may find the story a little thin, and there is a revelation at the end that I'm sure even kids will see coming. But the movie has a sweet message about friendship, and if "empathic navigation" isn't as singable as "had a very shiny nose," it's still a worthy addition to the Christmas pantheon. Rating three |
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