12 Days of Christmas Movies #9: Jack Frost (1998)

Happy Holidays everyone! To celebrate the most wonderful time of the year, I've decided to complete a daily review series of 12 Christmas movies leading up to the big 12/25. To qualify, the movies have to be tied to Christmas in some way and also something I've never seen before. I'll be going in chronological order. So, without further ado, if you got chestnuts, roast 'em - and enjoy my 12 Days of Christmas Movies!

Jack Frost
Dir. Troy Miller

In 1979 Jim Henson founded "Jim Henson's Creature Shop," which has since created some of the most timeless practical puppets and animatronics of all time. The Dark Crystal, Labyrinth, Sesame Street, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Harry Potter, The Muppets - these people worked on many of the seminal films of my childhood. The puppet from Jack Frost, however, isn't one of their most shining creations. Looking like a possessed Cabbage Patch Kid, this Frosty knockoff is an unintentionally terrifying monster that undermines an otherwise pleasant family film. Roger Ebert called it: "the most repulsive single creature in the history of special effects, and I am not forgetting the Chucky doll or the desert intestine from Star Wars."

Crazily enough, we get about 40 minutes-worth of backstory before we even see the abominable snowman. The story follows 11-year-old Charlie Frost (Joseph Cross), whose dad, Jack (Michael Keaton), is the lead singer of an up-and-coming rock band (who apparently only perform bluesy covers of holiday songs). To the dismay of Charlie and Jack's wife, Gabby (Kelly Preston), he persistently misses his son's major life moments while out on the road. Jack is constantly apologizing, even giving his son his favorite harmonica as a consolation prize. But when a make-or-break Christmastime gig opens up, Jack decides at the last minute to turn the band around and head back home. Although he's a changed man, his car skids off the road and he dies.

Mourning his father's death, Charlie makes a snowman outside all alone (one of the few activities he shared with his dad) and blows on the ol' harmonica. Then Jesus-snowman rises from the dead, possessed by Jack's soul. After shaking off his initial fear of a sentient pile of snow, Charlie then learns some valuable lessons from his dad about dealing with bullies and believing in yourself. Charlie keeps his dad a secret this whole time, like a supernatural parental ET, although people do see him talking to the snowman. They just think Charlie's going crazy.

That's not a carrot nose - that's a cork from the champagne
bottle the director downed before yelling "action!"

The biggest problem with this movie is its lack of inquiry about a literal miracle. A dead man has been reincarnated into an inanimate object. Does this mean there's a heaven? Can Charlie's harmonica raise the dead? Are there other living snowmen? What are the stakes of living as a snowman? Do you eat? Sleep? Urinate? What happens when you melt? What ramifications does this have for society, religion, humanity, and the very concept of a soul? At a certain point, the character simply says "It's time for me to go" and wisps away forever. Why couldn't he perpetually live in the snowy mountains? Or a freezer? Can a snowman die of age? The questions keep piling up, and clearly the screenwriters didn't give this much thought.

Its gaps in logic might have been forgiven if this movie worked as a silly, fun comedy, but it feels more like a straightforward earnest drama. What humor there is scrapes the bottom of the barrel and physically hurts to endure. In one scene, Charlie relates his situation to a bully who lost his dad also, and his response is: "Snow dad is better than no dad!" Another exchange, between father and son (in the middle of a downhill sledding action scene no less):

"You da man!"
"No, you da man!"
"No, I'm the snow man!"

The one thing I actually do think this movie succeeds at (at least in a mediocre way) is being a straight family melodrama. I found it surprising that a big studio film would try to inject their "snow dad" comedy with actual emotion. Charlie is filled with grief and has to learn to forgive his dad for not being there a lot growing up. Jack also has to come to terms with the fact that he put his career before his family. The only problem with this is that Jack wasn't enough of a jerk to begin with - he was a great, warm dad when he was around, and he was willing to sacrifice a major career opportunity to be with his family before he even became a snowman. Because Jack's supernatural condition does not truly mirror his own character (like, say, Jim Carrey in Liar Liar), there's no story arc to get invested in.

Jack Frost was a flop both critically and at the box office. It was produced for a whopping $85 million, but made only $7 million in its opening weekend. I think it's a pretty inoffensive middle-of-the-road kids movie, but it totally crumbles upon close scrutiny. Still, there is some heart to be found underneath all the sludge, even if Jack Frost himself looks like a double-amputee Pillbury Doughboy.

Rating: 2.5 out of 5

Trailer: