Elf

Elf is the last great Christmas comedy — a film that should have been a disposable holiday cash grab and instead became a perennial classic because Will Ferrell committed to the character of Buddy with a sincerity so total it borders on method acting. Buddy is a human raised by elves at the North Pole who travels to New York City to find his biological father, and Ferrell plays him without a single wink at the audience. Buddy is not pretending to be innocent. He IS innocent, and that innocence, dropped into cynical Manhattan, produces comedy gold.

James Caan's Walter Hobbs — Buddy's workaholic father who wants nothing to do with this giant man in an elf costume — is the perfect straight man. Caan plays the role with genuine irritation, which makes every interaction with the relentlessly cheerful Buddy funnier. The escalator scene. The cotton-ball snowball fight. The spaghetti with maple syrup. 'I just like to smile — smiling's my favorite.' Ferrell generates laughter from pure joy, which is the hardest trick in comedy.

Jon Favreau directed with restraint, letting Ferrell's performance carry the film rather than burying it in effects. The result is a comedy that works for children and adults simultaneously — kids laugh at the slapstick, adults laugh at the satire of corporate New York. Elf proved that sincerity is not the enemy of comedy. It is the foundation.