Christmas has long offered fertile material for film makers. Every year, Hollywood produces a raft of sleigh-belled, Santa-hatted fare for our delectation, and often the forced jollity of it all fails to entice us.
Last year’s disappointing Fred Claus was a case in point, so it is surprising that its star Vince Vaughn decided to go with another festive film so soon. Four Christmases, however, exceeds expectations by being that rare thing: a Christmas comedy that is genuinely funny.
Brad (Vaughn) and Kate (Reese Witherspoon) love each other very much, but hate to spend Christmas with their families (as Brad puts it, you can’t spell ‘families’ without ‘lies’). Every year since these yuppies met, they’ve gone on a fabulous holiday to avoid traipsing between the four households of their divorced parents. But when all flights are grounded on Christmas Day, they have to do their duty and visit their loved ones.
The couple progress from one parent to the next, each prone to causing major embarrassment and physical injuries to their offspring. There’s Brad’s redneck father and wrestling brothers, his hippy mother and her toy boy, and Kate’s born-again mum. Brad and Kate are confronted with everything they hate about their pasts, but end up seeing what they are missing from their future in a series of very sweet moments that intercut the slapstick.
What really lift this up from your usual romantic comedy mush are the performances. Vaughn and Witherspoon are very convincing as a couple, despite the height difference (they look like they’ve been drawn to different scales), and the parents are all played by Oscar winners (Jon Voight, Robert Duvall, Sissy Spacek and Mary Steenburgen).
Much of the script was improvised by the actors, and this is where Vince Vaughn really excels, churning out pop culture references and barbs with his cuddly charm. Witherspoon shows the comic timing that gained her so many fans in Legally Blonde and delivers the more serious scenes beautifully.
The director, Seth Gordon, has only one other feature under his belt, the cult documentary King of Kong about obsessive video game players. Four Christmases seems like an odd follow up, but it does touch on a real and universal theme: our families might drive us crazy, but we need them.
We may also need this gentle and hilarious reminder when we are struggling to stay sane in December.
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