Io sono Babbo Natale (2021)

Rome, Christmas 1975. Little Ettore Magni doesn’t find the presents he asked for under the tree, as happens every year, and, angry with Santa Claus, writes him another letter saying he wants to take his place and be truly good. In 2019, Ettore has become a criminal who leads a chaotic life and is constantly angry with everything and everyone. Jailed for a robbery and released two years early for good behavior, he is thrown out of his accomplices’ hideout without being paid, even though he has never revealed their identities to anyone. His former partner, Laura, with whom he has a daughter, left him after his arrest; Ettore is therefore broke, homeless, and friendless. While Ettore is sleeping in a park, an elderly passerby leaves him some money. Ettore follows him to his home, where the man, Mr. Nicola Natalizi, invites him in and offers him a place to stay. As soon as Nicola is distracted, Ettore hits him and ties him up in an attempt to rob him, demanding the combination to open the safe: Nicola’s date of birth, which means he must be almost 125 years old. Ettore opens the safe and finds only a small key inside. Nicola tells him it is the key to the kitchen pantry, so, puzzled, Ettore opens it and discovers that it conceals the entrance to an enormous storeroom full of toys. He asks Nicola to explain everything, and Nicola reveals that he is the real Santa Claus and moved to Rome from Lapland about fifty years earlier because the cold was giving him a lot of rheumatism. Shortly afterward, Nicola has a spell, falls, and badly sprains his knee, so Ettore takes him to the hospital. Since Nicola has to rest for a few weeks and therefore cannot deliver the presents, and since Ettore’s reintegration into society is being handled by Laura, a social worker who still hates him for all his misdeeds, Ettore promises Nicola he will stop committing crimes and convinces Laura that Nicola is an elderly man with psychiatric problems who cannot look after himself. This allows Ettore to live at Nicola’s house and work as his assistant. While visiting Laura’s office, he meets his daughter Alice for the first time in his life. She tells him that Laura is also separating from her new partner, Luciano, the girl’s adoptive father, whom Alice believes to be and treats as her biological father. In the days that follow, the elves arrive at Nicola’s house, as tradition dictates, to help Santa with his work. Ettore, initially skeptical that Nicola really is Santa Claus, changes his mind when Nicola shows him that he truly has all of Santa’s characteristic powers and takes him around the world in his sleigh, which is no longer pulled by reindeer but is high-tech and capable of flying at 12,000 kilometers per hour. Ettore asks if he could become Santa Claus, and Nicola replies that to do so, one must be kind, selfless, and generous. Ettore then secretly starts using Santa’s suit and magical powers to commit burglaries. When he wears it, he becomes invisible to adults but not to children, can walk through walls and move quickly through chimneys, understands every language in the world so he can read all the letters, and can use Santa’s special bag, which has infinite capacity and is weightless. One evening, using these powers, Ettore visits Alice at her home—he had told her he was Santa’s helper—and the girl gives him her letter to Santa so it will reach its destination sooner. However, Laura, who had begun to change her mind about him, hears Alice’s account, discovers what he has done, and furiously keeps him away from herself and her daughter. Still wearing the Santa suit, Ettore also robs his old accomplices, but the boss’s daughter reveals that she saw him. The criminals break into Nicola’s house looking for the stolen goods and ransack the storeroom, but Ettore knocks them out and takes them to the police station, getting them arrested in such a way that it looks as if they turned themselves in voluntarily. Nicola then confides to Ettore that he only pretended to have been taken ill in order to try to change him. But Ettore, still too selfish because of the terrible upbringing he received from his parents, who always confiscated the presents Nicola brought him every Christmas and then sold them, had not changed at all, so he should leave Nicola’s house. Meanwhile, the elves have returned all the stolen goods Ettore had hidden. Trying to redeem himself, Ettore puts the storeroom back in order, so Nicola decides to forgive him and gives him Alice’s letter, telling him he cannot grant the girl’s wish: she wrote that all she wants is for Laura and Luciano to get back together. Prompted by Nicola, Ettore manages to get Luciano to spend Christmas with his partner and adopted daughter. He tracks Luciano down to his parents’ house and brings him to Laura and Alice in a stolen car. He then returns to Nicola’s, but finds him gone. Going down into the storeroom, Ettore finds a set table and a letter from Nicola, delivered by the elves. In it, the old man reveals that, realizing he was growing old and wanting to find a successor, he chose Ettore after the letter Ettore had written him more than forty years earlier, understanding that deep down Ettore has a good heart, even if he always seems to show the opposite. Ettore then eats the delicious dinner the elves have prepared, puts on the Santa suit, and climbs into the sleigh to deliver presents to children all over the world, while Nicola can finally retire and enjoy his old age.