By snoadmin
Reese Witherspoon and Vince Vaughn topped the charts over Thanksgiving weekend with their new Christmas comedy, but it’s probably best not to celebrate “Four Christmases.”
The film has brought in an estimated $28.2 million since releasing on Wednesday, managing to outdo “Twilight” and “Transporter 3” over the extended weekend. But critics are not so keen on what is being referred to as one of the least festive holiday movies to ever be released.
Vaughn stars as his usual fast-talking, energetic self while towering over the tiny yet sassy Witherspoon to make a very unlikely match in this Warner Bros. Pictures and New Line Cinema film.
The pair play Brad and Kate, a young couple living together in San Francisco, who have managed to escape spending Christmas with their families for the past three years, through a scheme of elaborate lies and techniques. But when their plans to visit Fiji for the holidays get postponed due to foggy weather, they are forced to join their four unusual sets of families instead.
Brad and Kate appear happy and blissfully in love, but that all changes as they begin visiting their parents’ homes, each one worse and more chaotic than the previous, and slowly start to realize that they really do not know as much about each other as they had thought.
The Christmas visits themselves are very “Meet The Parents” and “Meet The Fockers” type scenarios — with the whole slapstick injuries, bodily function gags and crude sexual humor that has continuously grown to become so redundant and exaggerated in many comedy films nowadays.
Each visit has its own climax — Brad falls off a roof, Kate fights a bunch of kids in a big castle jumper, he faces off against his former best friend who’s now dating his mom, she gets thrown up on by her baby nephew — until the accumulated episodes eventually get the best of them, causing them to fight and split up for about ten minutes. That is when Brad drives back across town to apologize and the duo kiss and make up, realizing that all they want is each other, of course.
And, this happens all in one day. Imagine that.
Many of us can relate to the “Four Christmases” divorced-parents situation, but this film takes all the clichés to a new level, almost creating angst and frustration as viewers watch in disbelief of the completely over the top occurrences that probably wouldn’t ever happen in a million years.
Overall, the best thing about the film was the Oscar award-winning cast that includes Robert Duvall, Jon Voight and Sissy Spacek.
This is definitely not your typical holiday film that gets you into the jolly mood; actually it just may be the most joyless Christmas movie ever made.
Shame on the scrooges.
Rate: 2 stars
Synopsis: A Christmas comedy about a couple who pair up to spend the holiday with their four obnoxious sets of families.
Our take: There really is no fun in the dysfunction and chaos of this rather cynical Christmas film that manages to extinguish the seasonal goodwill within minutes.
