- Title: Four Christmases
- IMDB: link
Seriously I wanted to laugh. I really wanted to laugh, but for some reason where scenes should have been funny, just ended up lying there like a dead stinky fish. Vince Vaughn’s ability to act completely stupid is innate, but it gets a little exhausting and Reese is just too adorable, but who hasn’t seen her perfectly put together and adorable. I must say the clever combo of Robert Duvall, Tim McGraw and Jon Favreau as father and sons, was absolutely brilliant. They made most of the trip worthwhile.
Four Christmases will be entertaining enough for the brain dead moviegoers who drool a bit and find humor in every slapstick remark perfectly placed. I think there are a certain few that’s totally going to get the Spam casserole and backyard YouTubing body slam wrestling matches, the rest of us might sit there in awe that these things actually do happen.
Not to leave out the misfortunate events of your mother falling for an evangelist, or your best friend, and your dad figuring out that he had been selfish all his life and what better time than Christmas to make amends and decide you want babies after all.
Every holiday Brad (Vince Vaughn) and Kate (Reese Witherspoon) run for the mountains and escape the drudgery of visiting the family, the in-laws and all the little dirty diapers, baby puking, “isn’t he/she so cute” and if you where a good child moments that come with the packages and eggnog. This year they are inoculating babies in Burma, but caught in Hawaiian shirts at a closed down airport by a local news channel and their cameras suddenly their phones start ringing and their day is planned with the families.
Trip one takes Brad down memory lane at pops place. Howard (Robert Duvall) greets him at the door with a beer in hand and a buzz on it’s way, grabs for Kate and pushes Brad on through the door. Brad tries to dodge the dog pile his two brothers, Denver (Jon Favreau) and Dallas (Tim McGraw), has in store for him. Acting as if he is but a little boy, he allows his two little brothers to pick on him till Kate tells him to grow a set and stand up for himself, which only brings on the wrath that much more. After creating chaos and turmoil at dads, Kate and Brad move on to Marilyn (Mary Steenburgen), Kate’s mom.
Marilyn has the whole family there, Kate’s sister and aunts who ogle Brad like he’s a fresh cut of beef and deliver quite a show of Kate during her fat cootie years. All of a sudden Brad realizes that his cozy little existence with Kate is based on very little knowledge of her past and who she is. The two have shared every daily chore and every fun little activity, but not really been forthcoming about who they are. Kate also starts to think about the possibility of children and if she wants them in her future, even though her and Brad have decided no.
After Kate’s mom comes Brad’s mom, Paula (Sissy Spacek), who just so happens to have hooked up with his best friend from high school. A game of Taboo let’s the couple realize even more how little the two know about each other and Kate is getting fed up with Brad’s cocky bullshit attitude and how he treats her. She also wants a more serious relationship and desires to take theirs a step further, but after confessing this to Brad as they pull up to her dad’s, Creighton (Jon Voight), front door Brad doesn’t want the same and pulls away.
The two separate for a whole hour or so and then Brad pulls his head out and decides that he loves Kate and can’t live without her, so he accepts her on her terms and finds a suitable understanding for a future tax deduction.
Four Christmases is a want to be funny holiday film that stops just short of being actually funny. We get it, some of our families are identical and some of our families come nowhere near the nightmare of visiting divorced parents times four, but a high percentage of us can dig the need to escape.