What\u2019s especially clever about the construction of George Seaton\u2019s screenplay (and his direction) is how slowly it reveals its true intentions. When we first meet Kris Kringle (Edmund Gwenn), he\u2019s wandering the streets of New York City on Thanksgiving Day, correcting some poor shop owner\u2019s window display (\u201cYou\u2019re making a mistake with the reindeer! You\u2019ve got Cupid where Blitzen should be!\u201d), so our first impression is not that Santa is walking among us, but that this old guy is a little batty. Even when he saves the day at the Macy\u2019s Thanksgiving Day parade, clocking the Macy\u2019s float Santa as a sloppy drunk who\u2019s going to embarrass the store and stepping in to take his place \u2013 something about him seems to be a little \u2026 off.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We soon find out what it is: he considers himself the real deal, the genuine article, Santa in the flesh. We don\u2019t really get an explanation as to why Santa Claus is wandering around NYC on Thanksgiving, or exactly how he can just take off and grab a side hustle during his busiest season; he explains it as, basically, a research expedition. \u201cThis is quite an opportunity for me,\u201d he says, when offered the gig of Macy\u2019s Santa. \u201cFor the last few years I\u2019ve been very worried about Christmas.\u201d You see, he explains later, \u201cChristmas isn\u2019t just a day \u2013 it\u2019s a frame of mind! And that\u2019s what\u2019s been changing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n And thus we\u2019re introduced to the fascinating thematic contradiction at the center of Miracle on 34th Street<\/em>: it\u2019s a film that\u2019s about the true meaning of Christmas, and against its commercialization, which it suggests solving with\u2026 more shopping! Not long on the job, Kringle is given a list of toys the store has over-purchased, and told to gently \u201csuggest\u201d them to kids who don\u2019t know what they want. \u201cThat\u2019s what I\u2019ve been fighting against for years,\u201d he thunders, \u201cthe way they commercialize Christmas!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Not only does he tear up the list, but when a child asks for a toy that Macy\u2019s doesn\u2019t carry, he guides the parents to the competitor that does (instead of, say, telling that kid that the true spirit of Christmas is giving, not receiving \u2013 but what kid wants to hear that?). At first, of course, this does not go over so well with store management. But as word gets around, it turns into good PR. Macy\u2019s is about the spirit of the season, not about lining their pockets, the buzz goes, and soon other stores are following suit. <\/p>\n\n\n\n So what we\u2019re seeing, in Miracle on 34th Street<\/em>, is a model for the capitalist Christmas movie \u2013 a thematic undertone that ties it less to holiday films of its era, like It\u2019s a Wonderful Life<\/em>, and more to contemporary pictures like Home Alone 2<\/em> and Elf. <\/em>Sure, the true spirit of Christmas is kindness and family and understanding; it\u2019s also gifts and gift-buying, the bigger the better (up to and including, at the film\u2019s conclusion, an entire-ass house).<\/p>\n\n\n\n There\u2019s much to enjoy in Miracle<\/em> \u2013 the spirited spunk of little Natalie Wood\u2019s performance, the sparkle of Gwenn\u2019s (you really don\u2019t doubt for a second that he\u2019s who he says he is), and the kick of the character actors (especially a pre-Fred Mertz William Frawley). The sly smoothness of its transformation into a courtroom movie is kind of mind-boggling, its heaping praise of the U.S. Postal Service proves unexpectedly timely this particular holiday season, and the way the USPS ends up saving the day remains delightful. All of which is perhaps helpful in distracting from the strange tension between what the film is about, and what it\u2019s actually celebrating. “Miracle on 34th Street” is streaming on Disney+<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/miracle2-1024x576.jpg\")
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