ReelBob: ‘Kringle Time’ ★★★

A dark comedy about putting all your faith in childhood heroes instead of yourself.

“Kringle Time” is a story about hero worship and the crushing realization that even those you put on a pedestal are not perfect.

Jerry (Benny Elledge), the protagonist of this dark comedy, lives in the small town of Goshen. Since he was a child, Jerry has worshipped Kringles (Vernon Wells), a snowman character on the local public access television channel.

The adult Jerry works as the station manager at access station. He is a sad sack, down-on-his-luck individua, teased and disrespected by everyone at the station.

When Herb, the man wearing the Kringles costume — and has been wearing it for more than 30 years — dies on-air in mid-show, chaos ensues at the station and in Goshen.

All his life, Jerry has dreamed of doing the Kringles costume and now he has his chance. Except that the station’s chief executive and the show’s cast and crew are not supporting him.

But Jerry presses on, inspired by his joyful memories of Kringles and his ideas on how to improve the show.

“Kringle Time” examines the emotional ties to childhood heroes and what happens when you learn the ones you admired were as flawed as the rest of us.

Jerry discovers this when he opens the safe in Kringles’ dressing room that Herb bequeathed to him in his will.

Herb has left Jerry one warning — never open the box you find in the safe.

Being human, of course, curiosity overcomes Jerry, and he ignores Herb’s directive.

What he finds, changes his perception of Herb and creates a moral conundrum for Jerry.

Overall, “Kringle Time” is pretty bleak. But director Matthew Lucas and writer Zan Gillies create enough quirky characters and humorous situations to keep the movie from being totally disheartening — and the audience from being overly depressed.

The movie centers on Jerry’s inner conflict — part of which involves him seeing — and interacting — with the ghost of Kringles.

Jerry must decide whether to reveal the man’s true legacy and disillusion the town’s children or keep silent and be untrue to himself.

“Kringle Time” is about an idealist, a man — who as a child — grasped onto someone as a life raft to protect him in a dysfunctional home.

Realizing the truth upends Jerry’s vision of not only Kringles, but of himself and his belief system.

Elledge gives a fine performance as Jerry. He is, despite being the station’s punching bag, a nice guy with a girlfriend — whom, ironically, is Herb’s daughter — and friends in the community.

You ache for Jerry when he learns the truth about Herb and how it shatters his perception of his childhood icon.

And much to their credit, Lucas and Gillies do not give us a clean finale. Some issues and futures remain unresolved.

“Kringle Time” is a solid feature that benefits from a heightened realism about the pitfalls of placing all your faith in someone you don’t really know, instead of yourself.

I am a founding member of the Indiana Film Journalists Association. I review movies, 4K UHD, Blu-rays and DVDs for ReelBob (ReelBob.com), The Film Yap and other print and online publications. I can be reached by email at bobbloomjc@gmail.com. You also can follow me on Twitter @ReelBobBloom and on Facebook at ReelBob.com or the Indiana Film Journalists Association. My movie reviews also can be found at Rotten Tomatoes: www.rottentomatoes.com.

KRINGLE TIME
3 stars out of 4
Not rated, language, violence