Vince Vaughn has yet to issue a formal apology for “Fred Claus,” but consider the inoffensive “Four Christmases” a step in the right direction.
The 2008 film, released this week on DVD and Blu-ray for maximum holiday impact, is hardly a lump of coal.
It’s more like an easily digested fruit cake full of nuts. The nuts here happen to be aging Oscar winners who gleefully signed up for this ride through holiday hell.
The few laughs sprinkled throughout are well earned, and the brief running time means there’s little room to debate the film’s merits.
Vaughn and Witherspoon play a pair of self-obsessed yuppies who delight in avoiding their families each Christmas. They pretend to be out helping the poor or some other selfless mission, all the while vacationing in some resort spot far away from prying relatives.
An airline gaffe leaves them stranded, a plot contrivance that forces them spend time with their relatives - all four groups of them. That means a gaggle of parents, step-parents, new uncles, etc., many played by heavy hitters like Robert Duvall, Jon Voight and Sissy Spacek.
The jokes here are broad and plentiful, with the leads more good sports than anything else. But they do resonate on screen despite two very different screen personalities.
And their selfish attraction ends up being sweet, in a way. Sure, they’re only thinking of themselves, but they actually care for each other and that shines through the predictably wacky scenarios
Vaughn’s stream of conscious ramblings still sparkle, and his frequent screen partner Jon Favreau has a blast as a wannabe UFC warrior looking to take on all comers.
Yes, Favreau’s shtick has nothing to do with Christmas, but you’ll chuckle at it all the same.
The film might have salvaged some dignity with a smart, crisp ending. But it offers the kind of pat resolution that would make the writers of “The Love Boat” blush.
“Four Christmases” is as manufactured as “Fred Claus,” but the former aims low and occasionally hits the mark.
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I'm an award-winning journalist and film critic with more than a decade of experience in newspapers, magazines and the Web. I'm a member of both the Washington, DC Area Film Critics Association and the Denver Film Critics Society.
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Meh. Witherspoon is too damn short to be cast opposite Vaughn, and she should be avoiding this type of low-bar fare anyway - at least until she passes A Certain Age, and films like these - as Spacek demonstrates - become unavoidable.
Still, any Christmas film that is not redolent with cyncism is not a loss.