As Christmas approaches every year, the box office comes out with a number of flicks that are meant to get us in the holiday spirit. Past movies include ‘The Family Stone,’ ‘Christmas with the Kranks,’ ‘Deck the Halls’ and ‘The Holiday.” These aren’t usually Oscar winners, nor are they appreciated for their innovation. They are simply meant to be cute, often funny movies to kick-start the holiday season.
Cute and often funny are exactly the words I would use to describe ‘Four Christmases,’ starring Reese Witherspoon and Vince Vaughn.’ An unlikely pairing that I would have not necessarily put together as a couple, Witherspoon manages to charm us while Vaughn makes us laugh. While they do not show as much chemistry as one might have liked, they play off each other well, especially in comedic situations.
Playing Kate and Brad, a couple who keep their relationship seemingly perfect by sharing the view that neither marriage nor kids is the way to go, stem their ideas from, you guessed it, their own dysfunctional childhoods with divorced parents.
With a supporting cast including Robert Duvall, Sissy Spacek, Jon Voight, Mary Steenburgen and Kristin Chenoweth, the cast is certainly strong enough to carry the light-hearted comedy.’ However, as light-hearted as it is, there is more than the usual cursing and inappropriateness and, as a warning, the PG-13 rating is strongly cautioned for a younger audience.
The opening scene shows an unexpected and creative meeting of the two, that sets the movie off on a good note with high expectations.’ However, the movie continues to fall into the trap of depicting four stereotypical’ divorced, dysfunctional families.’ As Kate and Brad meet the other’s respective parents, they find out how compatible they actually are.
Meanwhile, the comedy that each of the parents bring adds to the stress on Witherspoon and Vaughn’s characters. Duvall, as an overly redneck father brings the most laughs, while Spacek, Steenburgen and Voight round out the cast a boy-toy loving cougar, an overly sexual Christian dating her pastor and the advice-giving father respectively.’
One of the only negative things that can be said about the antics that ensue at each house is that the scenes tend to drag on too long. As the relationship between Witherspoon and Vaughn is already awkward, after a bit of banter, it becomes a little tedious to watch.
‘Four Christmases,’ while not strictly a holiday movie, will fulfill your comedy needs.’ It promises laughs, and a good hour and a half’s worth of entertainment, and with the current state of the economy affecting our Christmas budgets this year, who wouldn’t want a cheap way to smile?
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