Half-hearted holidays

Yuletide rom-com Four Christmases
fails to mix hilarity and heart

CHEMISTRY IMBALANCE:
Reese Witherspoon and Vince Vaughn

by STACEY DEWOLFE

The holiday season is upon us, and with it the inevitable slew of Christmas-themed movies. They remind us that the loveable louts, well-meaning worriers and oddball outsiders that make up a family are actually wonderful in their wackiness, and should be embraced, despite some compelling evidence to the contrary, so that we may learn a little bit about who we really are. Such is the narrative that drives Four Christmases, an occasionally funny, sometimes poignant, but mostly corny as hell rom-com that strives to be all things to all people, and ends up being just this side of not terrible.

Directed by Seth Gordon (The King of Kong), the film tells the story of Brad (Vince Vaughn) and Kate (Reese Witherspoon), a superficial and almost willfully naïve couple whose plan to avoid their holiday obligations is derailed when their getaway plane is grounded by fog.

Against all odds, Vaughn and Witherspoon have convinced their parents that they’re globe-trotting do-gooders, giving up their cherished family time to spend the holidays inoculating Burmese babies. The ruse is up when they’re spotted at the airport in their inexplicably tacky resort wear—these are six-digit earners with a condo overlooking San Francisco Bay—and are forced to spend the day shuttling between the homes of their four divorced parents. From there, the film develops as you might expect, with one family environment even crazier than the next.

When the film works, it’s due in large part to the supporting cast. Robert Duvall, Sissy Spacek, Mary Steenburgen and even Jon Voight bring class and a degree of humanity to their otherwise caricatured roles as the parents. Jon Favreau and Tim McGraw are silly as Vaughn’s brothers, Ultimate Fighting fanatics Denver and Dallas.

Where the film fails is in the casting of Vaughn. Witherspoon has a natural touch with romantic comedy, but there’s such an absence of chemistry between the two leads that the opening sex scene seems, at best, an absurdity. In scenes intended to be touching and heartfelt, Vaughn’s trademark ironic tone and jokey banter feel out of place, and take away from the emotional resonance that the director clearly hopes to convey.

FOUR CHRISTMASES OPENS
FRIDAY, NOV. 28