Review: Four Christmases (2008)

[Steve Rhodes]

FOUR CHRISTMASES
A film review by Steve Rhodes
Copyright 2008 Steve Rhodes

RATING (0 TO ****):  ** 1/2

FOUR CHRISTMASES is one of the first films for the coming Christmas season. 
It's a comedy that uses Christmas more as a staging device than as a 
subject.  Although there are holiday decorations everywhere, the mood isn't 
particularly festive and none of the feelings of the season come through 
even in a dark and ironic way.  It just happens to be Christmas, so we have 
an opportunity to visit four dysfunctional families in a single day.

The film is not a memorable Christmas present for viewers.  But it's no lump 
of coal either.  It's passable entertainment with just enough good laughs to 
make it worthwhile.

What it does have is a sterling cast.  While the two leads, Vince Vaughn and 
Reese Witherspoon, as longtime lovers Brad and Kate, demonstrate good 
chemistry together and consistently hit their comedic marks, the same cannot 
be said of the supporting cast.  The supporting cast is certainly talented, 
as Robert Duvall and Sissy Spacek play Brad's divorced parents while Jon 
Voight and Mary Steenburgen plays Kate's divorced parents.  Still, this star 
power is largely wasted with none of the actors, save the two leads, 
breathing much life into their roles.  And the writers give all of the good 
lines to the leads, especially to Vaughn, whose mile-a-minute delivery of 
some very funny stuff is the best part of the picture.

When we first meet Vaughn and Witherspoon, they are a couple of bickering 
strangers at a bar.  As the two of them, under assumed names, trade pickup 
lines and insults, Vaughn gets the upper hand in their series of exchanges 
when he tells Witherspoon, "If I wanted an asexual pen pal, you'd be on the 
top of my list."

Soon after their staged fight, we see Brad and Kate back at home in their 
luxury apartment atop one of the San Francisco hills.  They aren't married 
but are extremely happy together, as they take large and awkward pains in 
continually reminding each other.

When the Christmas season rolls around, Brad and Kate always head off to a 
third world country to help the impoverished.  Well, that's the rationale 
they give their parents as the reason they won't be coming home for 
Christmas.  Brad and Kate, however, are way too hedonistic to spend their 
precious time on good causes or with bad families.  The stories they give 
their families are always lies.  (Several characters point out that the word 
"families" contains the word "lies.")  Brad and Kate make a point of 
spending their holidays in different luxurious and exotic venues.  Their 
only problem is the fear that their vacations may end up being repetitive.

After fog grounds all the planes and Brad and Kate's families accidentally 
see them on TV stuck at the airport, Brad and Kate are forced against their 
will to endure all four families in one single, awful day.  Of course, they 
survive it all and learn a thing or two about themselves in the process. 
The comedy can be fairly slapstick at times, but it works in fits and 
spurts.  What falls miserably flat is the whole last act, as the story tries 
to switch to heart-warming drama.  This whole last part feels forced and 
tacked on.

But it falls to Vaughn's Brad to make it worth the price of admission, as he 
delivers various hilarious thoughts on life.  Among other things, Brad tells 
us that his childhood was like "The Shawshank Redemption" and that the 
beauty of having children is that "they're like little walking tax 
shelters."

Still, I expected more of FOUR CHRISTMASES since it was directed by Seth 
Gordon, whose THE KING OF KONG: A FISTFUL OF QUARTERS was last year's best 
documentary.  Steve Wiebe, the star of THE KING OF KONG, has an unmemorable 
cameo in FOUR CHRISTMASES.

FOUR CHRISTMASES runs a fast 1:22.  It is rated PG-13 for "some sexual humor 
and language" and would be acceptable for kids around 8 and up.

My son Jeffrey, age 19, giving it ** 1/2, said that it was sort of fun.  He 
said that there were no amazing laughs but there were some good ones.  He 
didn't have strong feelings about the film other than that the last act was 
weak and that he enjoyed seeing Steve Wiebe again.  Jeffrey's girlfriend 
Yasmin, also 19, gave it *** and would have given it more, she said, if the 
last part have been better.  She found the film much like MEET THE PARENTS, 
a movie that she loves.  She liked how crazy Brad and Kate's families were.

The film opens nationwide in the United States on Wednesday, November 26, 
2008.  In the Silicon Valley, it will be showing at the AMC theaters, the 
Century theaters and the Camera Cinemas.

Web: http://www.InternetReviews.com
Email: Steve.Rhodes at InternetReviews.com

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