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Every December 3 or 4 filmmakers
and/or studios try to come up with what will be a classic holiday film
like "It's A Wonderful Life" or "The Christmas Story" but, instead,
come up with an "Elf" or "Bad Santa" that is shown in the theaters for
one month and than disappear into TV/cable land.
For the
previous 3 weeks "Four Christmases" has been the number one film and
this past week even with 4 new movies opening up it ranked in the top 5
best grossing movies. Obviously mediocre films can be a success.
Instead
of visiting one family we get to visit 4 families as each of the stars
parents are divorced and are with other partners. There is the yelling,
the misunderstandings, thesibling rivalry, the weather, the baby (and adults) throwing up and, it being the holiday, the happy ending.
There are some star names here, in secondary roles, the most poignant being Jon Voight,
especially when he talks about a father's love for a daughter--it is
hard to forget his relationship with his real daughter, Angelina Jolie,
and if he might not be talking to her. Robert Duvall, Mary Steenburgen and Sissy Spacek play the other three parents each contributing their expertise and filling out not too well written roles.
I
like Vince Vaughn but he is repeating the bumbling, loving oaf too much
and has to start doing meatier films/roles while Renee Witherspoon is
Renee Witherspoon. I have never seen Kristin Chenoweth in person and
she is a STAR of Broadway and concerts but in all the TV and movie
roles I have seen her in she has annoyed the heck out of me and does in
this film!
This is by no means a classic film and will be forgotten after December but the 90 minutes it takes to tell the story goes by pleasantly and quickly enough.
AJ