Miracle on 34th Street (1994)

The late Roger Ebert stated that “Little girls are more sophisticated than they used to be.” When Susan Walker sees a man dressed as Santa Clause inebriated she says it straight out: “Bombed? It’s the pressure.” Susan’s mother, Dorey, is the PR director for Cole’s, a Manhattan department store, and Susan knows the outlooks. “This seems like a pretty pointless exercise,” she says when she is climbing onto Santa’s lap.

For those who have seen the original version will know that her disbelief in Santa Clause will not last long, because she finds herself in the 1994 remake of “Miracle on 34^th Street,” the classic story about a department store Santa who may possibly be Santa. The movie was remade by the late producer John Hughes and director Les Mayfield, who follow the original very closely, but with a quieter, more nostalgic tone. Just like the original version, this remake begins with a charming old gentleman who is hired right on the spot and right away put into costume after the department store’s Santa gets intoxicated, played in this version by Jack McGee, at the start of the annual Thanksgiving Day’s Parade. The old man introduces himself as Kriss Kringle (with two S’s this time around). Like I stated yesterday that he was portrayed by Edmund Gwenn, who actually won an Oscar, which I am not surprised about. In the remake, he is played by the great Richard Attenborough, whose eyes twinkle and beard, which he proves to Susan, is real and cannot be pulled off his face.

Kringle is loved so much at the parade that he gets a full-time job as Cole’s Santa, and is an instant hit by telling children the truth, especially when he sends them off to different stores for cheaper prices at the evil Shopper’s Express store. If you remember in the original when Santa stunned the audience by speaking to a girl in Dutch, similarly he does the same thing here when he starts to do sign language to a deaf girl.

Meanwhile, little Susan, played by 90s child actress Mara Wilson, is beginning to think whether or not there is a Santa Clause. If there is, she wants him to bring her a house, a father, and a brother.

Her dad hasn’t spent any time with her in years, but Bryan, played by Dylan McDermott, a lawyer who lives next door, is in love with her mother, Dorey, played by Elizabeth Perkins. Dorey is a pessimist, once-wounded and twice shy, who doesn’t believe in Santa, or love.

The movie follows the original 1947 version into the courtroom where, after some dappled tricks by the rival department store, an attempt is made to have Kriss Kringle declared insane because of the fact that he truly believes that he “is” Santa Clause. Bryan defends him, with the results just as pleasing as the original, and there is a happy ending, even more pleasing, because Dorey and Bryan get married in the same exact Chicago church where Ebert got married, and Ebert says that “it was not possible to achieve such critical objectivity.”

There will never be a movie to replace the 1947 classic version, nor a performance to replace Edmund Gwenn, but this remake is a sweet, gentle, good-hearted film that stays true to the will of the original and doesn’t try to make everything slick and manipulative. You know it’s a good movie when you start to hum “Joy to the World” after the movie is over.

I give this movie a 9. Now some people may not know, but Mara Wilson is no longer a film star and instead has been writing online. You should check out her website when you get the chance. Also, if Mara ever reads this blog, I would just like to let her know that I personally had nothing against any of the roles that she starred in. I'm not saying that because of what she did to The Nostalgia Critic that I'm scared the same thing may happen to me. No, I'm serious, I never had any negativity towards any of her performances that I saw when she was a child actress.

Now that I have stated that, stay tuned tomorrow when I continue my 25 day countdown to Christmas reviews.