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Directed By
Seth Gordon
Written By:
Jon Lucas, Scott Moore, Matt Allen, Caleb Wilson
Cast:
Reese Witherspoon, Vince Vaughn, Robert Duvall, Jon Favreau, Kristin Chenoweth, Mary Steenburgen, Dwight Yoakam, Sissy Spacek, Carol Kane, Tim McGraw, Stephanie Venditto, Cedric Yarbrough, Katy Mixon, Collette Wolfe, Sterling Beaumon, Zachary Gordon, Skyler Gisondo, Creagen Dow, Laura Johnson, Taylor Mills, Brandon G. Holley, Bryce Robinson, Jordi Caballero, David Hodges, Jeff Redlick, Kenny New, Kyle Scudiere, Zachary Culbertson, Patrick Manuel, Noah Munck, Katie Soo, Taylor Lyn, Michael Zazarino, Steve Byrne, Taylor Geare, Irena A. Hoffman, Mackenzie Brooke Smith, Irena A. Hoffman, David Aranovich, Haley Hallak, Shawna Washabaugh, Matthew Glen Johnson, Lee Kuhn, Stacie Luann, Royce Roy, Greg Young, Hope Rene Young, Sue Fletcher, True Bella Pinci, Tony Sommers, Alana Kenden, Gabriella Gustafson, Didi Banks, Sharon Grgich, Visa May, Zak Boggan, Desanka Ilic
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Four Christmases (2008)
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Movie Review by Jarrod
November 30th, 2008
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I typically value the time I spend with my relatives on the holidays; I am not repulsed by their presence. I have many fond memories from childhood of my whole family gathering on Christmas, spending the entire day opening presents and eating massive quantities of food. 'Four Christmases' is a movie about two people, Brad (Vince Vaughn) and Kate (Reese Witherspoon), who deliberately seek to avoid their relatives, often traveling to faraway places and then making up some flimsy excuse to explain their absence, if anyone cares enough to ask. I am guessing they did not have a happy upbringing, and once we meet their parents and siblings, we can sort of understand their actions. This year, they are planning a trip to Fiji, but heavy fog prevents them from leaving San Francisco, and they are interviewed on television, so there have no choice but to pay a visit to each of their divorced parents, hence the title of the film. Brad's overbearing father is played by Robert Duvall, not an easy man to get along with; tough and gruff, he slings insults at Brad and frequently humiliates and belittles him. Brad has two brothers; the fitness-obsessed Denver (Jon Favreau) and Dallas (Tim McGraw), both of whom are stereotypical rednecks, Denver's wife Susan (Katy Mixon) is kept barefoot and pregnant.
Denver especially likes to beat the crap out of Brad; with those tattoos on his neck and biceps, he looks like either a wrestler or a biker, I lean more strongly towards the former since he puts Brad in a variety of painful submission holds, eager to make him cry and scream, while daddy encourages him not to be such a wuss and defend himself. Susan tells Kate what happens to the nipples after excessive breast-feeding. Brad's mother (Sissy Spacek) is a bit nicer and more normal, at least by the established standards, and the same goes for Kate's caring father (Jon Voight). Kate's mother (Mary Steenburgen) is thoroughly unpleasant, and her sister Courtney (Kristen Chenoweth) has moments of pure obnoxiousness, but there is a human side that shines through on a few occasions, once she and Kate have been reunited. Vaughn and Witherspoon make for a likable and believable couple, though neither of them is particularly funny.
This is almost exclusively the fault of the script, since Vaughn and Witherspoon have solidly proven their comic chops in stuff like Wedding Crashers and Legally Blonde. The script is credited to four writers, and while there is some acerbic, brutally honest dialogue that paints a convincing portrait of familial strife and bitterness, most of the actual attempts at humor fall flat, notably the tired combination of infants and projectile vomiting. Duvall is terrific, taking his role as the contrary patriarch to levels one may not initially expect. Voight, Spacek, and Steenburgen are also good. Favreau is surprisingly buff; most remember him as a somewhat corpulent actor, who helped shape Vaughn's career with Swingers, and who enjoyed recent success as the director of Iron Man. Mixon is a hoot.
Most seasonal cinematic fare that floods theaters in November and December is usually downright atrocious; Christmas with the Kranks, Deck the Halls, Santa Clause 3, Fred Claus, The Perfect Holiday, and Surviving Christmas spring to mind immediately, along with the Arnold Schwarzenegger disaster Jingle All the Way. Compare these to classics like A Christmas Story or It's a Wonderful Life, or just about any incarnation of Dickens's A Christmas Carol (including Bill Murray's Scrooged), and you will see that Hollywood has lost its ability to craft even a moderately decent holiday flick. Speaking of A Christmas Story, Peter Billingsley makes a cameo appearance in 'Four Christmases', though I really did not recognize him as an adult, since I identify him so closely with Ralphie Parker.
It is difficult to accept this as a Christmas movie, primarily because of the California setting, which means there is no snow, all that we have to remind us that these events do take place on Christmas are a few appropriate song choices. I have been to Hawaii around Christmas before, and it felt strange to me, as California or Florida would, since I am so accustomed to the cold weather that usually sets in by that time of year. I associate Christmas with snow-covered trees and crackling fires. That is what I saw growing up in Ohio, and I still see it where I currently live in New York.
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