2003, R, 95 minutes

Bad Santa is the anti-Elf. In contrast to the saccharine, family-friendly Will Ferrell comedy smash, Bad Santa is profane, rude, and often hilarious. It's a rare thing to have a Christmas movie with a hard-R rating, and this one is definitely not for children. Instead, director Terry Zwigoff (Ghost World) goes for an all-out nasty little comedy that eventually finds its holiday heart.

Willie (Billy Bob Thornton) is a department-store Santa with an edge. He's a raging alcoholic, a chain-smoking, foul-mouthed character with a weakness for big and tall women. Assisted by Marcus (Tony Cox), an African-American dwarf who works as an elf, Willie finds a new department store each holiday season to work in and eventually rob. In between drinking binges, Willie is an expert safecracker, while Marcus is small enough to climb through air vents and get to the store alarm quickly enough before it alerts the authorities.

For their latest job, Willie and Marcus find themselves at an upscale mall in Phoenix. The prissy store manager (the late John Ritter, in his last film role) is instantly alarmed by the drunk in the Santa suit, but he's unable to convince the store's security chief (Bernie Mac) that Willie is trouble. Santa Willie is trouble, of course, as the kids who sit on his lap are greeted by a mean drunk who spouts the f-word along with various verbal abuses.

Soon, two new people come into Willie's life. Sue (Lauren Graham) is a bartender with a serious Santa Claus fetish (she repeats a certain profane phrase to Santa during their numerous sexual encounters, the first being in a car in the mall parking lot). Then there's The Kid (Brett Kelly), a lonely obese boy who mistakes Willie for the real Santa. The Kid latches onto Willie (much to his chagrin), and begins to follow him outside of work. No amount of Willie's yelling, swearing, or verbal abuse can shake The Kid's delight in having found the real Santa.

When Willie finds that The Kid lives alone in a big house with his senile grandmother (Cloris Leachman), the homeless bad Santa moves in so he can sleep off his latest drinking binge. Willie is never remotely nice to the young boy, who seems oblivious to all the bad treatment. Only when The Kid accidentally cuts himself does Willie show the vaguest concern for him.

Bad Santa could have easily gone wrong. It's rare to have any movie, much less a comedy, centered on such a thoroughly-unlikable character as Thornton's Willie. However, the movie's mean-spirited humor takes on a weird kind of charm, thanks to a sharp script by Glenn Ficarra and John Requa. Having ace comic actors helps too. Thornton never misses a beat with this nasty character and his profanity-filled dialogue, but he allows occasional glimpses of humanity to show so that Willie isn't a complete monster. Cox matches Thornton in their frequent verbal duels, while Kelly as The Kid creates a strange and original character.

Unfortunately, Zwigoff doesn't carry the movie's mean spirit all the way to its conclusion, opting for a somewhat conventional happy ending. Bad Santa is certainly not for all tastes, but it's sure to provide holiday fun for adults who like their comedy a little on the sour side.