Movie Review

Four Christmases

“Four Christmases” is another holiday flick trying to be subversive. Merely making a movie about Christmas cheer isn’t good enough for Hollywood anymore. Since “Bad Santa," you gotta be rude, crude, but you still need to have heart. It’s a tricky combination, one that Vince Vaughn tried last year with “Fred Claus” and failed miserably. He strikes out again with this romantic comedy with Reese Witherspoon. There were rumors of onset problems between these two but that isn’t their biggest problem on screen, in fact they’re not bad together, but the movie has a hard time trying to be both rude and funny and by the time it also tries to be sentimental it seems like that sleigh has pulled away from the North Pole long ago.

The story of Brad (Vaughn) and Kate (Witherspoon) actually doesn’t start off that bad. They’re a couple living in San Francisco but they’re also very keen on living in the moment. No marriage, no kids, and definitely no family, especially during the holidays. How do they evade those miserable family holiday get-togethers? “You can’t spell families without lies,” they say. These two lovable bull-shitters are about to take a trip to Fiji for Christmas but comeuppance is about to come their way. A fog, plus a television news crew, force them into the situation of having to suffer through their divorced moms and dads, four families in all.

This is where the movie falls flat on its face. It feels like four separate stories, all rarely finding success. First is Brad’s crusty dad (Robert Duvall), UFC fighter brothers (one of which played by Jon Favreau), and the Favreau character’s white trash wife. Expect a lot of wrestling slapstick and dumb redneck jokes, and even a cruel one at the expense of a little kid who believes in Santa. Kate’s mom (Mary Steenburgen) is next, her house really a den full of flirty, sexually open nymphos trying to turn to Jesus because mom’s new boyfriend is a pastor (Dwight Yoakum). Here were treated to baby spit-up, obnoxious little kids, and some cruel jokes at Kates expense.

The script, by four screenwriters, tries to go for broad comedy about suffering but in doing so create scenes that are more odd and uncomfortable than anything else. The one “Christmas” that does work is with Brad’s mom (Sissy Spacek). It starts out with an awkward surprise and then quickly jumps into an outrageous game of “how well do you know your partner?” There is actually a little bit of wit in this one and I enjoyed it. It’s short-lived though and quickly erased by the last “Christmas” on the list with Kate’s dad (Jon Voight). Here were treated to normalcy and seriousness. Why? Because, in a contrived emotional arc, Kate has had an unbelievable change of heart in regard to family and children throughout the day and so Brad must either commit or get off the pot. Guess what he does?

How anyone could feel more in love with family after a day like this is beyond me. How the filmmakers were able to concoct this bullshit ending with a straight face is beyond me as well. Anyway. Having Vaughn and Witherspoon help, both playing people with the same identifiable and likable tendencies the two actors have displayed before. Vaughn is cynical, selfish, and a jerk and no one plays those attributes to a more awesome degree than him. And Witherspoon is perky, charming, and is very good at making fun of herself. Both go at their roles with suitable discomfort and dread. Unfortunately, the audience mostly goes at theirs in the exact same way.

Craig's Grade: C

A	10.9%
B	41.8%
C	31.8%
D	15.3%
F	0.3%