The story of a boy, his hitman, and their plot to kill Santa Claus. Chris Cringle (Mel Gibson) isn’t quite so jolly these days, struggling with bills and a surplus of naughty children. When he leaves a lump of coal under spoilt rich kid Billy’s (Chance Hurstfield) tree, the brat doesn’t take it so well. The spurned child sets a hitman (Walton Goggins) on Santa’s trail, vowing to make the fat man pay.
This festive thriller re-imagines Santa as a grizzled old badass, worn down by the pressures of modern life, and subcontracting his workshop to the US military. This is a film of two halves, but takes both of them very seriously. The never not controversial Gibson is an unconventional Santa, but a surprisingly plausible one; a grizzled, embattled take on the childhood legend. It’s not hard to imagine this Santa as a future version of Tim Allen’s Santa Clause character. But it’s Goggins who really steals the show as the eccentric hamster-loving hitman with a grudge. Little Billy gets side-lined once the story really hits its stride, but as a two-hander between Gibson and Goggins, Fatman is great fun. Awkwardly paced and tonally uneven, but fun, all the same.
An old-school action thriller reminiscent of In the Line of Fire and The Jackal – crossed with The Santa Clause – it’s one of the more unusual Christmas movies out there.
