"Prancer," as the title suggests, has to do with one of Santa's reindeer, and the plot feels rather familiar as a little girl (Rebecca Harrell) whose mother has died struggles to get close to her grieving, crusty father (Sam Elliott).
The film is set around Christmas time and one evening she is walking home through the woods when she stumbles upon a wandering reindeer. Later, when the animal is wounded, she takes it in and cares for it in an abandoned barn on her father's apple farm.
The reindeer, which she assumes is Santa's Prancer, becomes a close companion as the girl has trouble fitting in at school and seems to be constantly getting into trouble. Eventually it brings the girl and her father together.
Told in a straightforward, largely unsentimental manner, "Prancer" isn't so much notable for its story as its treatment. Though it might have had more spark and pizzaz with someone like Steven Spielberg at the helm, the film benefits from realistic performances and small touches that give it an authentic feel.
When Harrell and a friend ride their sleds down a mountain and run into eccentric old Cloris Leachman's garden, the results are sitcom-predictable. But when Harrell ignores her father's warnings about such shenanigans and when she talks with her brother or her girlfriend, she never seems like an actress - she's so natural you'd swear the camera just happened to catch her doing what was needed for the film.
Elliott is also well-cast and charmingly grumpy, a frustrated farmer who sees his life going down the drain and concludes that he has neither the emotional nor financial resources to raise his daughter. He agonizes over whether to have his sister take her in, and the moment when he tells the girl is particularly affecting. For Elliott, it's a nice departure from the tough-guy persona with which he's associated.
"Prancer" is a bit raggedy in places and sometimes takes on a made-for-TV look, but for the most part this is an utterly enchanting film that deserves a place in the canon of holiday features that make their way to theaters, video and TV each year at this time.