The light-hearted touch of "The Santa Con" is established from the get-go when we meet a hardened criminal in a country-club style prison worthy of a visit from Felicity Huffman. At the Danfield Correction Center, the inmates are playing cards with their jovial warden, and Nick DeMarco, the grifter who faked his way to a professorship at Yale, holds the winning hand, yet lets the warden win.
Nick is released from prison early, due to the warden's hyperbolic letter of recommendation, and it appears as though Nick will return to his life as a sponger, gambler, and con artist. But along the way, he meets Pastor Ruth, the most interesting character in the film, who gives him some tough love during the holidays.
While working at a mall as a Santa Claus, Nick made a promise to little Billy that his separated parents will be united by Christmas Day. Pastor Ruth sets Nick straight in allowing him to see that it is important to keep his promises. Nick then ingeniously takes over a construction job at the home of Carol Guthrie, while trying to get the alcoholic husband John into a twelve-step program.
While drawing witty allusions from movies, Pastor Ruth as other aphorisms that she has learned from "The Big Guy." She teaches Nick that he has to give it his all and "return the car with an empty tank." She also emphasizes that it is what we DO that matters, and "the rest is decoration."
The screenwriting was superb with nuggets from the poems of Robert Frost integrated into the film. In "The Death of the Hired Man," Frost wrote that "Home is the place where, when you have to go there,/They have to take you in." Nick learns much about the concept of home in the advise from Pastor Ruth and the ability to finally listen to his heart, rather than his head.
The Santa Con
2014
Action / Comedy / Drama / Family / Romance
The Santa Con
2014
Action / Comedy / Drama / Family / Romance
6.0Keywords: christmas
Plot summary
In prison, con man Nick DeMarco, using his professional talents on the warden and board, is granted early parole. One person who can see right through Nick is his sister, Rose DeMarco, who is nonetheless forced to take him in in the short term. As a job is a condition of Nick's parole, Rose manages to get him a short term one in view of her mall coffee stand as a mall Santa, he accepting it despite it not matching the money from some of his high end cons. What Rose can see as his first major screw up in his narcissism in not even realizing he did it is that he, as Santa, promises one little boy what he asks for for Christmas: to get his estranged parents back together by Christmas in just over a week. Out of circumstance, Nick, confused over his error with the boy, turns to God in the form of Ruth, the pastor at a church in the neighborhood, she who convinces Nick that truly to make amends for his life, he has to try to make that boy's Christmas wish come true despite not even knowing who the boy is or what his parents' circumstances are. With Rose's help, finding out the "who's" is the easy part: the boy being seven year old Billy Guthrie, and his not yet divorced parents being web designer Carol Guthrie and ad man John Guthrie. Again using his professional talents with a little help from Rose and who also ends up being his ex-con former prison mate Paul Greenberg, Nick is able to infiltrate their individual lives, he discovering that Carol still loves her husband, but John seems to love whiskey more as he chose drinking over family when given an ultimatum. In the process, Nick becomes emotionally invested in their lives, to the point that he may lose sight of the end goal in falling for Carol himself.
Uploaded by: FREEMAN
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Heartwarming and Endearing
the drunk and the con man
Con-man Nick DeMarco (Barry Watson) sweet-talks his way into parole. He's picked up by his sister Rose (Melissa Joan Hart) who is tired of his antics but must fulfill their mother's dying wish. She works at the mall and gets him a job as the mall Santa. Little Billy Guthrie wants Santa to bring his parents (Melissa Sagemiller, Scott Grimes) back together after his father's many drunken outbursts. In a rush to get out to the race track, Nick agrees to the wish without listening to the boy. Rose is infuriated and confronts his callousness. He is called to fulfill the wish and he uses all of his con skills.
I really like the premise. It has loads of wacky possibilities. Being a bad contractor is not one of them. It's trying to be wacky fun but it is more off-putting than anything else. It's the start of a downward spiral. Nick stops being likeable as the constant lying takes a toll. I don't want to go back to her drunken husband or the lying con man. It would nice if the husband's problem is something other than alcoholism. The serious condition really clashes with the attempts at lighthearted humor.
Honestly good
This is a bit of an unusual story for Christmas. It's not about snowmen and trees and skating. It is about two men who try to straighten out their lives as they help each other, one more than the other.
The con man is slick, but he comes to realize that his lies hurt people, especially the one he told a little boy.
It's not a typical romance story and in addition to that it takes a few turns along the way. The acting is OK. There's a few good humorous moments but also some drama.
Try this movie for something different in the way of a Christmas story.