Jessica und das Rentier

With all of the hype that surrounds the many Christmas releases and remakes, here's an original that all of the family should see. It is sweet yet real. It restores hope and decency to movies.

We've rented it before, now we own it. After "A Christmas Story" and the Alistaire Sim version of "A Christmas Carol", this is the Christmas movie our family MUST watch every year.

Few movies inhabit the world of childhood quite as authentically as "Prancer." Until the very last moments, it doesn't matter whether young Jessica's belief that she has found one of Santa's reindeer is literally true. The fact that she could believe such a thing so strongly, and selflessly act on her belief to help the lost reindeer, is compelling enough on its own. Children occupy a world where naive clarity mingles with a confusing knowledge of how much of adult life remains unknown. "Prancer" creates an atmosphere that lets adults dip back into that almost-forgotten way of experiencing the world.

Sam Elliott delivers a fantastic performance as Jessica's father, a farmer who has recently lost his wife and will soon probably lose his farm. He is on the verge of losing his family, and the father-daughter relationship at the heart of the movie feels unaffectedly real. Cloris Leachman's turn as an embittered neighbor deserves note as well.

The film's greatest flaws occur in its last two minutes. First, a critical continuity error shows that the reindeer has shed a jingle-bell harness just before the sound of the harness is supposed to indicate the animal's presence. Finally, at the very end, the movie shatters its ambiguity about the literal truth of the reindeer's identity. In doing so, it negates the foundation of the story's authenticity and dramatic power, and trivializes the final reconciliation between Jessica and her father. If the reindeer is not a supernatural being, then Jessica is a silly little girl and the audience has been had. But if the reindeer is a magical beast from Santa's stable, then it is not a leap of faith for Jessica's father to accept her improbable belief in the animal. By revealing the answer one way or the other, "Prancer" cheapens itself and significantly undermines the emotional power of an otherwise subtle and moving drama.

Some occasionally clumsy dialogue only mildly undercuts the virtues of Greg Taylor's thoughtful script, which provides a surprisingly realistic depiction of the joys and heartaches of simple lives at Christmastime.

Rebecca Harrell is superb as 9-year-old Jessica, who finds an injured reindeer in the woods near her Michigan farm and determines to nurse it back to health in time to help pull Santa's sleigh on Christmas Eve. She's a marvelously realized character, refreshingly minus the cute kid mannerisms of many a Hollywood acting tyke. I particularly liked the way she deflected her father's tirades with her singlemindedness of purpose: he might get mad at her, but she was still going to do what she had to do. Very childlike, and very real.

A subplot about Jessica's helping a reclusive, eccentric neighbor (played by Cloris Leachman in a virtual cameo) seems truncated and unnecessary, but for the most part Taylor's scenario sticks to the basics and is better for it. Characters surrounding Jessica act like real people, not stereotypes, and events transpire with a sense of realism, not melodrama.

Credit for this tale's effectiveness also goes to Sam Elliott, who plays Jessica's father, a recent widower, with a harsh demeanor that seems to mask real pain and desperation. Thus his rapprochement with his wayward daughter carries unexpected depth of feeling and could not fail to move all but the most cynical. For a dad like me, I admit it put a big lump in my throat.

Despite a somewhat flawed climax -- to my mind, the vfx shot of Santa's sleigh coursing across the sky is unnecessary, given the magic moment just prior to it that reveals reindeer hoofprints leading to a precipice -- this nice little holiday film delivers a timeless message about faith and selflessness. Recommended for mature kids of 8 or older.

While not without a couple of problems [like pacing], PRANCER is one of the better family/holiday movies I've seen. I didn't see this until after I saw PRANCER RETURNS about a week ago on cable. After PRANCER RETURNS [the sequel to this] was over, I went to the video store and rented this. Now while this one seemed to have a lower budget than PRANCER RETURNS, it still is just as well-acted and heartwarming [if not even more so]. Most holiday movies tend to show the holidays as times where everything is perfect, but this one shows that the holidays aren't as perfect as we'd like them to be. It's able to capture the ups and downs of the holidays while keeping everything pretty close to reality. Though I really enjoyed the film, CHRISTMAS VACATION remains to be my favorite holiday flick.

Not many people seem to remember Prancer, but I saw it in the theater when I was a little girl. The storyline escapes me, since I haven't seen it in years, but I remember I cried quite a bit while I was watching it. Maybe I'll rent it one of these days. It doesn't deserve to be so forgotten.