(courtesy IMDb (c) Netflix)
In the third instalment of the Dutch Christmas film series – read reviews of Claus Family 1 and Claus Family 2 – it becomes increasingly apparent that, rather joyfully the grief that marked the first entry in the series and its lingering effects in movie number two, are now, in the way of things, giving way to a wondrous sense of moving forward with life.
That was, of course, happening to some extent in the first two films with the Claus family, reeling from the death of their husband, dad and son, finally coming back to the importance and family bonding value of their true calling which is, yep, being Santa Claus.
They have a place up at the North Pole as lore demands, but they also live in a Dutch city too doing all the things that any normal group of people in an urban setting would do – going to school and work, socialising and tending their homes.
Except that for the Clauses, well at least the ones in the know and that’s not everyone which makes the secret keeping not just something that projects out from the family but which defines its inner workings too, who, come Christmastime, push a button a snow globe and hey presto end up in the snowy romanticism of the North Pole where some frenetically amusing elves keep the business of festive gift giving humming along.
In some ways, it’s the elves – irrepressibly upbeat Gunna (Eva van der Gucht), crankily unhappy Holger (Stefaan Degrand), curly blond Ikka (Josje Huisman) and excitable newcomer Joel (Jandino Asporaat) – who give the Claus family so much zest and a riotous sense of anarchic fun.
While the Claus family – grandfather Noël Claus (Jan Decleir), grandson and Santa heir apparent Jules (Mo Bakker), granddaughter Noor (Amber Metdepenningen) and Jules and Noor’s mum, Suzanne (Bracha van Doesburgh); add on mother-in-law Jet (Sien Eggers) and Suzann’e new beau Jef Kürt Rogiers and you have a loving and healing family unit – sort out some serious issues, it’s the elves who end up the requisite jollity to a film that doesn’t quite manage to capture the festive fun of the first two instalments.
There’s a lot of delight to be had in the fact that many of the characters from the first two films are back together and that with Noor now accidentally in on the family secret and eager to be a part of the legacy – no word on how well Suzanne will react when she finds out the entire family has been lying to her for YEARS – the family, once rent by the death of Noël’s son, is now coming together in some rather lovely ways.
And while Noor does complicate things more than once with her 10-year-old excitement about the fact that her family are the people behind the legend, and Noël ends up in a Mexican prison – honestly the snow globe could’ve got him out of trouble but for narrative convenience only Jules and Noor escape through its shimmering charms – the focus for the family is on being together and living out the task they have to be the best Clauses possible.
Fun though The Claus Family 3 is, and again much of that comes down to the elves and Jet who drinks far too much spiced wine, it’s lost the novelty of the first two films and feels a little tired in its execution.
Much of that can be slated home to the fact that the family goes on holiday, and while the ski trip to Innsbruck, Austria, does open things up nicely in terms of setting, and gives Suzanne a little more to do as she wrestles with when to ask Jef to marry her, it means that the core focus of the movies, which is the magical lives led behind a suburban facade is lost.
Of course, the series’ producers could have kept the Christmas focus front and centre and sent Noël, Jules and Noor off on some present delivering adventures around the world, and that sort of happens but not nearly enough to inject the requisite amount of escapism films of the festive genre need in generously souk-stirring quantities, but they largely try to shoehorn all kinds of other elements into the film, many of which leave it feeling a little overstuffed and underdone.
To a large extent, you go along with it because the characters are so well realised and so lovely to be around – they may have issues at times but by and large they love each other and that anchors them and the film in some rather lovely emotional places – and you love how much of a big found family they all are, especially once you count in the elves who aren’t really employees but part of the wider Claus family.
So as far as that goes, The Claus Family 3 is a joy because you’re with old friends who are as warm and inclusively good as ever, and all you want to be is with them and bask in the warm of their Christmas-centric togetherness.
But that’s not quite enough to account for the tiredness of a film that tries to inject a nasty 10-year-old skiing prodigy into the story to show how selfless Noor can be, and which prolongs the will-she-won’t-she proposal machinations of Suzanne to give and Jet something something substantial to do.
By taking its eye off the Christmas prize – not completely but enough that some of festive fun of the originals is lost – The Claus Family 3 comes out feeling like the weakest instalment in the series, and while the actors give it their all, and the narrative does its best to keep things sparkling along, it’s doesn’t feeling quite as festively buoyant as the first two entries, and you can only hope that if there is a The Claus Family 4, that they go back to basics, and send the Clauses off on lots of Christmas adventures where the focus is on the festive first and the family second and we can glory in the loveliness of the Clauses doing their myth behind the banal present gifting thing.
All three The Claus Family films stream on Netflix.