Four Christmases (2008) Movie Review

Four Christmases fails miserably in its attempt to become a comedic holiday classic. Though the film is less than ninety minutes long, it drags from one scene to the next going from comedy to gooey relationship drama. The film has two stars in Vince Vaughn and Reese Witherspoon, but Vaughn’s last year holiday flop Fred Claus is only slightly better than this attempt.

The film centers around the San Francisco yuppie couple of Brad (Vince Vaughn) and Kate (Reese Witherspoon), who are very much in love with one another and themselves, as they make-up heartwarming excuses to skip the holidays with their families. Each’s parents are separated, so there are actually four households that look from them each holiday. The two actually take luxurious vacations together on the holidays to escape, and this Christmas they are preparing to go to Fuji. As a dense fog moves into the San Francisco Bay, all flights are cancelled, and the two are unwantingly interviewed by a local news station about their delay. Hence, their parents see the news footage and Brad and Kate find themselves having to make a trip to each of their family’s Christmas gathering. The first visit is to Brad’s redneck father’s (Robert Duvall), who runs a house with a boys will be boys attitude, which includes his two UFC fighting brothers (Jon Favreau and Tim McGraw). The next stop is to Kate’s mom’s (Mary Steenburgen), whom she finds is dating the high-energy Pastor Phil (Dwight Yoakam). Brad’s mom (Sissy Spacek) is next on the list, who is actually living with Brad’s young ex-best friend. The last stop is at the home of Kate’s dad (Jon Voight), where the comedy shifts into drama.

Seth Gordon bursts onto the scene last year with his entertaining documentary The King of Kong, and follows it up with this stupid and uneven holiday comedy. Working from a script by four writers, Gordon captures a few laughs, but the actions of the two leads are so crude that it is hard to like them. The supporting family roles are all not that likeable either except for Jon Voight’s realistic dad, which arrives a little too late in the film. For a holiday comedy, the film is also very raunchy, and some actions are just shocking, when they are suppose to be funny, one example being when Kate accidentally smacks Brad’s infant niece’s head against a open pantry door. Gordon also lets Vince Vaughn do absolutely whatever he wants, and his antics become tiresome quickly. There is also a muddled connection from going to from the comedy to the relational drama in the film, as well as gross-out moments repeating themselves by the film’s end.

As mentioned, Vaughn does his usual tyrants of his quick and aggressive manner. This work for him superbly in his first role in Swingers and in Wedding Crashers, but hardly works in this film. Teamed up with Witherspoon seemed promising, but the two hardly have any chemistry, and though Witherspoon is capable of executing comedy, she is weary here. The supporting cast is full of past Oscar winners like Robert Duvall, Jon Voight, and Sissy Spacek, but all play characters we have seen before. Jon Favreau is really the only amusing one of the cast as Brad’s physically aggressive brother, Denver.

Four Christmases has a few situational laughs, but it fails an entertaining holiday comedy as it comes across as more dunce and a bore than anything.