DEC 5, 2024 | OPINION | By Leigh Walden
“Red One” is a delightful Christmas film starring Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Chris Evans as they partake in the age-old endeavor to save Christmas. Also starring Kiernan Shipka, Lucy Liu, J.K. Simmons and Nick Kroll, the movie is star-studded for a holiday film.
As far as action Christmas films go, “Red One” does not disappoint. The film offers audiences the thrill of saving Santa from his kidnapping, and in doing so, preserving the spirit of Christmas and rewarding goodness in the world.
In the film, Santa is kidnapped by a Christmas witch who has very different views about what the spirit of Christmas should be. To be sure you’re not reading between the lines: she wants to kill anyone on “the naughty list.” This includes anyone who has ever lied, littered, been rude or been late, to name just a few.
The main plot centers around The Rock’s character, Callum Drift, an immortal centuries-old bodyguard for Santa Claus. Ahead of Santa’s kidnapping, Drift had presumably submitted his two-week notice or something of the like — it’s not made clear within the scope of the movie the legalese of resignation in the North Pole — and was actively planning for his retirement. The crux of his reasoning for his retirement is that he struggles to deal with adults surrounding his beloved holiday and traditions.
“For the first time ever, there’s more people on the naughty list than the nice list,” Drift tells Santa.
Once Santa gets kidnapped on Christmas Eve, Drift’s retirement goals fade from view. Drift now has one final critical mission: return Santa to safety in time to make the Christmas magic possible. In the process, he must team up with Jack O’Malley, played by Chris Evans. O’Malley is an infamous hacker known for tracking anyone, anywhere. He’s also a “level-four naughty lister” — probably on account of him being a deadbeat dad who seems to need access to serious mental health support resources. O’Malley aided the kidnappers who took Santa and instead of Drift going with his instinct to dismember O’Malley with the assistance of his anthropomorphic polar bear colleague, the agency Drift works for decides to put O’Malley to work.
What follows is a two-hour adventure of redemption, tongue-in-cheek humor, compelling plot and good-old American, God-fearing Christmas cheer, dammit. It’s a marvelously entertaining film and it got me into the holiday headspace.
All this, despite seriously failing to pass the Bechdel test.
For those unfamiliar with the Bechdel test, it’s a metric for measuring the representation of women in film and media. As far as “feminist tools” go, the bar is quite low to pass the test. A film must have two or more female characters, with names, discussing something other than a man. It’s so simple to pass the Bechdel test. Yet, this film failed.
The four female characters of note (who had more than maybe 30 seconds of screen time) were the aforementioned Christmas witch, played by Kiernan Shipka, Zoe (no last name), the head of the protective agency that The Rock’s character works with, played by Lucy Liu, Jack O’Malley’s ex-wife Olivia (again no last name), played by Mary Elizabeth Ellis and Mrs. Claus played by Bonnie Hunt.
The fate of the characters, played by women in the film, lacks luster. Mrs. Claus has extremely limited screen time and her most notable contribution to the plot is when she incorrectly identifies which cookies Santa likes (yes, really). She gets to be part of Santa’s operation and seems to be the brains and organization behind making Christmas happen, but she doesn’t show off her prowess in this film. How she is identified throughout the film indicates her societal status: she is just Mrs. Claus, Santa’s wife.
Zoe is the head of an international agency defending the integrity of the mythological world, and she doesn’t even get a fucking last name. Liu does a good job of portraying a strong leader who is focused on getting the job done, but in conjunction with her character’s name (or lack thereof), the lack of women in leadership around Zoe, and the overall “girlboss!” vibe to her character, makes Zoe come off a bit token-y. We don’t get to spend enough time with her to give her the respect someone in her hypothetical position deserves.
Jack’s ex-wife, Olivia, gets similar treatment. She is a busy doctor working to raise her son while co-parenting with his pathetic, disengaged father. She is doing everything in her power to make Christmas special for her family, just as many women are simply expected to do. We don’t see much of Olivia except when she’s compelling O’Malley to be a better dad.
Then, of course, there’s the Christmas witch. This one should be rather obvious even to those who do not call themselves a feminist. A heartless female character who wants to inexplicably kill people is not a great look at a time when we see so many complex looks at the traditional villain archetype. Add onto that calling her a witch … Oh, and did I mention at the end of the film she morphs into a hideous 20-story tall goblin-witch-creature? Yah.
Watching this film was difficult for me because, inside me, there are undeniably two wolves.
The first wolf is a brainless, happy-time Christmas critter filled to the brim with exceptionally joyful feelings after seeing this movie because it made Christmas feel so close and exciting again.
The second wolf is a pissed-off feminist ready to shit in the shoes of the screenwriter of this film for his (undoubtedly HIS) inability to write complex female characters.
I came out of the theater happy but also so angry.
Angry about the lack of representation of women, I was also angry as I stood in the parking lot with my keys splayed between my fingers like they always are in parking lots at night because I realized why this movie got away with insufficient female representation. This Christmas movie didn’t need to represent all the women who work so hard to make the holidays so magical — the movie had Santa instead.
Sitting in my car, I realized just the extent of underrecognized labor that women participate in to make Christmas (and most other holidays) special for their families, all for the credit to be given to Santa.
I understand that I am making a broad generalization when I say that women, especially mothers, are primarily responsible for making the holidays magical. Of course, I agree that many men undeniably contribute enormously to the holidays. However, I think of all the viral memes of Christmas morning where the dad is just as surprised as the kid tearing through the wrapping paper about the present contents. It wouldn’t be a viral meme if it wasn’t at least a little bit relatable to people. Santa’s magic gets to be magic to many dads too, because moms are the ones doing the work.
But this movie was so fun and jolly! It’s so emotionally confusing that it made me so mad simultaneously. In this movie, and so many realms of modern holiday festivities, Santa acts as a convenient tool to cover up the insane amounts of dedicated labor that women put forward towards the holiday. How do the presents get picked out? Santa’s magic! How do they end up wrapped and under the tree? Santa’s magic! How do the stockings get filled, including mom’s? Santa’s magic!
Moms have been doing it all, and we all just keep telling our kids that it’s actually an old, fat white man? It makes me mad that I’m just kind of realizing that. It makes me mad that it’s true.
I still like the magic of the holidays. A magic that, in my head at least, is intrinsically linked to Santa. I’m grateful to have grown up knowing a magical holiday season filled with wonder. I’m also so endlessly grateful for my mom – who won’t be filling her own stocking this year, that’s for damn sure.