'Four Christmases' - No Surprises But Still Funny
Nicole Gonder
Issue date: 12/3/08 Section: Entertainment
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I can feel the audiences' collective eyes rolling as Kate and Brad skip around San Francisco, kissing, giving each other foot rubs, taking dance classes and generally acting like the perfect married couple. But wait, they aren't married. They are one of those couples that dates for years and never plans on tying the knot. The only thing that saves me from having to use the popcorn bowl as a barf bag is the fact that all hell will break loose on their carefree asses any moment now.
And it does. Kate and Brad's trip to Fiji, disguised as an "inoculating infants in Burma" mission to their families, is postponed for 24 hours due to poor weather. A local newscaster stops the couple at the Fiji Airlines counter and asks for their reaction to the holiday travel disaster, exposing their lies to their families. Within a matter of moments, their BlackBerrys are buzzing like insects as they receive call after call from family members. Realizing there's no way out of it, the couple gives in and decides to satisfy their families by stuffing four Christmases into one day.
The couple with the perfect job, life and relationship suddenly has to face all of the old skeletons from their childhood. They start off united against the onslaught of their insane family members, but the secrets from their pasts start to tear them apart.
By the 20-minute mark, it's pretty obvious where the movie is going. At each house, Brad and Kate are going to learn a little more about each other. They're going to have a crisis of heart, get into a fight, but come together at the end, stronger than ever. It may be cliché, but there's a reason why Hollywood uses clichés … they work.
What really makes this movie stand out from all the other holiday movies coming out this year is the comedy. There are few actors in Hollywood who can improv an entire movie and manage to keep it funny. I'm talking about actors like Vince Vaughn and Will Ferrell, who can somehow just stand in front of the camera, talk and make everyone fall over laughing. The problem with these movies is that if the supporting cast can't keep up the movie falls flat. Just look at "Blades of Glory." When it comes down to it, the success of "Four Christmases" depends on Witherspoon's performance.
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