DASHING THROUGH THE SNOW - Mark Reviews Movies

Dashing Through the Snow, Walt Disney Pictures

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Review by Mark Dujsik | November 17, 2023

The jokey back story that opens Dashing Through the Snow is funnier than anything else in the movie. In fact, it's too good to ruin with anything beyond the broadest of descriptions, but let's just say it involves a kid who desperately wants his parents to get along again, a suspiciously curious mall Santa, and a very good reason that Eddie (Chris "Ludacris" Bridges) would become skeptical of and annoyed by anything that has to do with Christmas.

That's ultimately the main point of the story—that poor Eddie pretty much despises a holiday that's meant to bring cheer and other good feelings to people. The course of the narrative of Scott Rosenberg's screenplay is the stuff of basically any story about a sad and cynical person who comes to realize the spirit of glad tidings and good will toward everyone since Charles Dickens more or less invented such a tale.

That's not to say there are any ghosts in director Tim Story's movie, unless one counts three bumbling goons hired by a corrupt Congressman as the specters of what real cynicism can bring. It is, though, to say that there's the potential element of the supernatural here, as Eddie learns a thing or two about how to be happy about the holidays and why he should be.

The possible supernatural touch here is the presence of a man who claims to be the honest-to-goodness Santa Claus. He calls himself Nick and is played by Lil Rel Howery, which is such sneakily inspired casting that it's a shame the movie doesn't know what to do with it. Howery can be as jovial as one would expect of Santa, but it's the constant twinkle of mischief in his persona that makes this idea compelling.

After all, Eddie doesn't believe in a real Santa, because he's an adult and, well, he had that traumatic event when he was 7 years old, which probably made him question what any person would be doing by sneaking into houses, eating cookies, and trying to disappear without a trace on Christmas Eve—or any night, for that matter. Now, he's just trying to make the holiday as festive as he can for his 7-year-old daughter Charlotte (Madison Skye Validum) while he has her for the night.

A social worker in Atlanta who works with local police departments, Eddie is typically busy with work all the time and especially this time of year, which has put a rift between him and his wife Allison (Teyonah Parris). When he catches Nick trying to get into the home of some vacationing neighbors via the chimney, it's little wonder that Eddie thinks this guy is a crook, someone in need of some professional psychiatric assistance, or both.

Because of his good humor and the sense of a rascal beneath it, Howery is just the right actor for this particular variation of Santa or a somewhat-convincing faker. One wonders what a more character-focused brand of comedy might have brought to the dynamic between this character and the doubt-filled Eddie.

Instead, Rosenberg is determined to keep the momentum of a contrived plot moving, as Eddie, Charlotte, and Nick spend Christmas Eve wandering the city, evading those hired goons, and encountering a bunch of slightly eclectic characters who might be the real Santa's helpers or just strange accomplices of a wanted thief who are as dedicated to the performance as their boss. At a certain point, the filmmakers don't even bother to make us doubt who Nick actually is, and since this is a family movie, it's not as if there's really much doubt in the first place.

The plot is just an excuse for all of that running and driving around town, with stops at a Christmas-themed night club (where Nick gets to sing and crowd-surf), Santa's alleged workshop in yet another night club that has a 12 Days of Christmas theme (where his elves look as bored and embarrassed as the makeup and outfits must have made the actors), and inside the van of a secret family club of nighttime Santa trackers. It's an unnecessary excuse, too, involving politician Conrad Harf (Oscar Nuñez), an accidental switch of a couple of computer tablets, and those three goons (played Ravi V. Patel, Marcus Lewis, and Mary Lynn Rajskub) chasing the three through the night and throughout the city.

If some of this is starting to sound repetitive, well, that's an appropriate form for describing this movie, which possesses some clever touches (Nick explaining Santa's history and his odd biochemistry, such as sweating glitter and flatulence that smells like cinnamon), as well as a couple of game performances—from Howery, obviously, but also from Bridges, who has a knowing, deadpan sense of humor in the role. The whole thing is good-natured enough that Dashing Through the Snow is an occasionally amusing distraction, but a strict adherence to formula is the biggest distraction from a potentially smart premise.

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