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It’s that time of year again: time for a flood of new holiday movies. Most of them are warm and cozy. Some of them are funny and over-the-top. But you probably won’t find many with the kind of quirky North Pole action of the holiday thriller Fatman.
Fatman stars Mel Gibson as Chris—a.k.a. Santa—the not-so-jolly provider of Christmas cheer to children everywhere. Unfortunately, though, Santa just doesn’t seem to be getting through to kids anymore, and the number of gifts given has plummeted—so his stipend from the U.S. government has, too. Desperate to keep his factory up and running, he reluctantly takes on a government contract to pay the bills. But while he and the elves are getting set up, he’s also being hunted by a bitter hitman (Walton Goggins) who’s been hired by spoiled 12-year-old Billy (Chance Hurstfield).
As you can imagine, Fatman doesn’t play out like the typical feel-good holiday movie. In fact, apart from Mrs. Cringle (Marianne Jean-Baptiste) and her love of colorful cookies, there’s nothing sweet and festive about it. Gibson’s Chris may have a good heart, but he’s generally gruff and irritable—to the point that no one in town would ever suspect him of being Santa.
Really, though, any of us would be irritable if we had to spend the holiday season dealing with kids like Billy—a child so spoiled and so ruthless that he has a hitman at the top of his contacts list, just in case he needs to threaten a classmate. Billy is definitely the most annoying part of the film, but he leads us to Goggins, who’s perfectly creepy as the hitman who’s still dealing with similar childhood pain.
All of the anxieties and bitterness and years of hurt and frustration build up for these characters—until it comes down to a bloody shootout at Chris’s compound. It’s all pretty crazy, but filmmakers Eshom and Ian Nelms somehow manage to find a tone that just seems fitting. It’s dark and violent without taking itself seriously…at all. But it isn’t too silly, either. It may not be a slick holiday adventure, but it’s definitely an outrageous one.
Of course, in a year of sickness and conflict, a darker, more violent holiday movie might not be the right fit for the average stressed-out 2020 viewer. But those with a twisted sense of humor will find guilty pleasure from Santa’s snowy showdown.
Listen to the review on Reel Discovery:
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