Jack Blackas SatanThe story
About Dear Santa
An 11-year-old boy with dyslexia misspells the address on his Christmas letter, and instead of Father Christmas it is the Devil who turns up at the family's door, thrilled to have received his first fan mail. Posing as Santa, he offers the boy three wishes in exchange for his soul, and what the boy chooses to wish for, from a school crush to a new friend to his parents' strained marriage, decides whether the bargain holds.
The CineClaus verdict
A lovely premise, and the Farrelly brothers nearly know what to do with it.
A misspelt letter to Father Christmas reaches the Devil instead, and Jack Black plays him with the giddy delight of someone opening his first fan mail. The trouble is that the film cannot choose between gross-out gags and a genuinely sad story about a grieving family, so each keeps undercutting the other.
Black alone makes it worth a go. Try it on older children who like their Christmas rude, and on parents who miss the School of Rock version of its star.
The family desk
Can the kids watch?
Our take: rated 12 for moderate rude humour. Mild swearing and bullying sit on top of a story about a family bereavement and a bargain over a boy's soul, so it suits twelve and up rather than little ones.
BBFC advice: Moderate rude humour.
Content advice & accessibility
- Where the advice comes from
- The British Board of Film Classification (BBFC).
- Our age guidance
- Editorial, separate from the official 12 certificate, and never looser than it.
