MIRACLE ON 34TH STREET (1994)
A film review by Mark R. Leeper
Copyright 1994 Mark R. Leeper
Capsule review: A remake of a classic holiday film
adds a few touches that the story did not need and
basically just opens the story to a generation who won't
watch black and white. There are far worse remakes, but
isn't that faint praise? Rating: 0 (-4 to +4)
There are basically two reasons to remake a film. One reason is that movie theaters need something to thread into their projectors. Here the urge is often to try to get the product made as quickly as possible and to use as the blueprint a film that has already proven to be an audience pleaser. One can only hope that the filmmaker will treat the original material with respect, particularly if the original is a well-liked film. The other reason for remaking a film is that sometimes a filmmaker can discover a new slant on an old story and can bring something fresh to the story. And these reasons are in large part in conflict since the first requires speed, the second slows down the process.
The new MIRACLE ON 34TH STREET feels like it was made for both reasons. The holiday season is coming and those projectors are hungry to be fed. What does the new version add? Primarily what it adds is color. The original has become a great children's film that only adults will watch. Why? Because it is real, real old, from the days before people knew that movies need color, dude. The choice seems to be to colorize, to remake, or to just stop telling the story to children. Then I saw this film with absolutely the wrong audience, a collection of film fans who obviously would have grown up with the original and knew not to equate monochrome with bad filmmaking. To much of that audience this film was a purely redundant remake.
I suppose I feel much the same way. But I do admit it generally did treat the material with a degree of respect. So often films for children have gunplay or people kicking other people or attempted rapes, etc., ad nauseum. But in this film, besides an attempted corporate takeover by some shadowy bad guys, which admittedly I could have done without, this is a likable and a faithful retelling.
Kriss Kringle (played by Sir Richard Attenborough) is back on 34th Street. This time he is not in Macy's Department Store but in a foundering store called Cole's. (Macy's reportedly wanted no part ofa remake that would claim they were in financial trouble. Other stores were anxious but none on 34th Street.) Kriss is the best department store Santa Claus that any store could have, with just one drawback. Kriss actually thinks that he is Santa Claus. And what is more he is able to convince others of his insanity. One of the people he would like to convince is the store's hard-nosed special projects director, Dorey Walker (Elizabeth Perkins), and her wide-eyed daughter Susan (Mara Wilson). But who does nor know the plot of MIRACLE ON 34TH STREET, one of the perennial holiday classics.
Kriss is played by Sir Richard Attenborough, formerly of JURASSIC PARK. He is still trying to give children something real, but this time around it is something that won't bite them. Where Edmund Gwen was smiling and pleasant, Sir Richard genuinely radiates joy. His short beard is a bit of a problem, particularly since young Susan claims he looks like all the pictures of Santa Claus, but otherwise he is more satisfying in the role by objective standards. Mara Wilson plays young Susan, the wide-eyed premature realist. Wilson is not the beautiful child that Natalie Wood was, but does seem to show an intelligence far beyond her seven years of age. Elizabeth Perkins and Dylan McDermott play Dorey Walker and her suitor Bryan Bedford. Each know they have to out-act their predecessor in the previous film and probably do.
I do not remember the original giving much explanation why the mother has her attitudes on the danger of living in fantasy. This version gives a fairly thin explanation, but at least it is there. In some ways it strengthens the new version, but the explanation is alsoa bit downbeat for a children's film. The happy climax of the film trades the original's piles of mail for crowds of people and a much better legal argument. Strictly speaking, the happy ending of the court case is far less contrived in this version, not that it will be as satisfying to youngsters.
It is hard to know exactly how to rate a remake. Do you pretend you never saw the original? If so, then this is a fairly good film. But, if like most people, you have seen the original, there is not a whole lot new to offer. Overall, I suppose I will rate it from the latter point of view and give this a 0 on the -4 to +4 scale.
Mark R. Leeper
mark.leeper@att.com
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