'Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale'

'Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale' (R) (Finland) (3 stars)

Writer and Director: Jalmari Helander
Starring: Per Christian Ellefsen, Peeter Jakobi, Jorma Tommila, Onni Tommila, Tommi Korpela, Jonathan Hutchings

I don't know about you but I am sick of watching some of these same feel good, heartwarming Christmas movies. There are never many "Bad Santas" that someone will come up with. After all the presents, hugging, egg nog and Ho Ho's and Christmas cheer movies like "Rare Exports" are a breath of fresh air. I don't know if this is a horror movie or a creepy fantasy. I do know that I was surprised by the end when I had laughed a lot and I actually felt the movie was sweet and magical. Weird! The movie is about some men out in the wilderness who discover a frozen Santa Claus underground or is it the real Santa? The men are accompanied by two kids who are brothers. The youngest kid thinks this will be a wonderful Christmas if they have indeed found the real Santa. There are some wonderful surprises as they all discover that it isn't the real Santa but the real Santa is somewhere and when we see him it is damn funny.

"Rare Exports" has a wonderful wintry look that is also haunting and strangely beautiful. The movie sets a creepy mood but there is some great, black humor and some really original and imaginative ideals and a strange whimsy. There are a plethora of elves that are looking for Santa after the three men try to hold Santa for ransom. These elves do not look like your stereotypical elves (don't you hate elf typecasting?) nor do they look like Will Ferrell. One of the ingenious threads in this movie is what the elves look like and what happens to them at the end. Pity the men who try to ransom Santa and risk the wrath of angry elves! This movie is fun and I like the imagination, the darkness, the look of the movie. The movie starts out slow and it isn't the best movie you will see and it doesn't try to be great. The movie already scores major points for being original because I think out of 200 movies I saw in this past year five were original. The movie could catch on as a midnight movie and it is already showing at The Music Box in Chicago for midnight shows. This is a weird, fun and strange movie and if you thought this review was weird and the movie sounds warped, you will like this one a lot.