Films might be categorized into those that challenge their audiences and those that don't. The latter, often relying on formulaic plots with tried and true outcomes, are not necessarily to be written off as without value. Santa Clause 2 might be considered one such case in point. There's barely anything new here. Santa, elves, Christmas in jeopardy, and a plethora of reindeers and kids with personality up the wahzoo.

For all its predictability, its virtual insistence that your brain be put on hold almost from when the music begins, the Santa Clause 2 is peculiarly satisfying. Of course it's too early to be thinking about Christmas, I just got out my turkey decorations after all, but Tim Allen's movie seems to make it okay. Yes, it tugs the nostalgia strings. Yes, it's shameless. Yes, it's great.

But it's hardly challenging. There are no plot twists--there's only just barely a plot at all. There's nothing to ponder, nothing that stays with you after the movie to be thought through later. That's the job of Punch Drunk Love, the new movie from writer and director Paul Thomas Anderson. You'll remember his eyebrow raising auteurship from Boogie Nights and Magnolia. Far from complacency, Thomas insists that we're challenged. Not in a Shindlers' List, Dead Man Walking kind of way, but in an almost childish superficial way, indeed, I fear it's rather self-serving. Thomas just demandes attention by throwing bizarre unexpected and unexplained elements at his audiences--elements that assure the film is neither quickly digested nor forgotten. Sure, I need to see Punch Drunk Love a few more times to work out what the heck is going on, because this film is likely the weirdest I've seen in quite a while.

My fear, however, is that it's all smoke and mirrors. For all its absurdity, Punch Drunk Love doesn't seem to be weird good. If there's an underlying message it isn't readily apparent, and it may just be that Thomas wants to build his name recognition at whatever the cost.

So, where does that leave us? Two films, this week, somewhat polemic. One, Santa Clause 2, that massages the senses and makes me long to curl up in a ball and just wait for Santa to shimmy down my fireplace bringing me a piece of my childhood that is visited all too rarely. A second--Punch Drunk Love--tells me that Adam Sandler really can act, and that movies don't have to be weird to challenge.


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