Dear Santa (2024)

The premise of Dear Santa (2024) is, on paper, genuinely inspired. A dyslexic sixth-grader named Liam Turner misspells "Santa" in his Christmas letter and accidentally summons Satan. The Devil shows up, finds the kid oddly endearing, and decides to play along as the jolly gift-giver while dangling a three-wish deal over the boy's head. Jack Black plays Satan. That sentence alone should sell tickets.

It doesn't quite deliver. But it's not for lack of effort from Black, who commits fully to a role that demands he be menacing, sentimental, and ridiculous all at once, sometimes within the same scene.

What Dear Santa Gets Right (And What It Gets Wrong)

Director Bobby Farrelly, working without his brother Peter for the first time in a major studio feature, is clearly trying to straddle two tones that don't naturally coexist. The early scenes play like a genuinely dark comedy. Satan materializes in Liam's bedroom with a grin that's more predatory than jolly, and Black leans into the wrongness of it. There's a version of this movie that commits to that strangeness all the way through.

Instead, it pivots steadily toward the kind of warm family comedy it set out to subvert. By the third act, you could swap Satan for any generic magical helper and lose very little. That's not a small problem when your entire concept is "what if the bad guy played Santa."

Keegan-Michael Key shows up as the real Santa Claus, and his chemistry with Black is the film's most reliable source of entertainment. Their scenes together crackle in a way that makes you wish the script gave them more to work with. Robert Timothy Smith as Liam is likable and grounded, which helps anchor a movie that keeps drifting toward the absurd.

Post Malone appears as himself, providing a concert-date subplot that exists mainly to give Liam a cool-kid moment. It's harmless. Malone is a decent sport about it.

The Script's Missed Opportunity

The screenplay is credited to Ricky Blitt and Peter Farrelly, from a story by Blitt, Peter Farrelly, and Dan Ewen. The central tension, Satan trying to corrupt a good kid while increasingly failing to stay cynical, is a story as old as stories. Done sharply, it can be great. The Devil and Daniel Webster ran that play in 1941. Bedazzled did it twice. Little Nicky did something adjacent and messier.

Dear Santa does it politely. The movie is rated PG-13, but it plays closer to PG in spirit. Satan's schemes to corrupt Liam are so mild they barely register as temptation. There's a running theme about Liam's grieving family, his parents' strained marriage after the death of his brother, and the movie handles that with genuine care. The emotional core is sincere. The comedy, though, keeps pulling its punches.

Rotten Tomatoes logged a 24% critics' score from 21 reviews. That number feels about right, which is a shame given the talent assembled. Jack Black working with a sharp script on this premise would be something. Here he's working harder than the material deserves.

Is Dear Santa Worth Watching?

If you have kids in the 8-12 range who can handle some mild edge, this will play fine as a streaming night watch. Jack Black is legitimately funny in scattered moments, and the Christmas atmosphere is properly deployed. Filming took place largely in Atlanta and Decatur, Georgia. The production team transformed Decatur Square into a Christmas market that looks genuinely festive on screen, even if it's Georgia in spring underneath the tinsel.

For adults coming in on the strength of the premise, manage expectations. This is not Bad Santa. It is not trying to be Bad Santa. It is trying to be Elf, which is fine, but the shadow of what it could have been sits over the whole runtime.

The movie lands where it aims. The aim is just a little low.