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Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Two stars barely redeem ‘Four Christmases’
Four isn’t the magic number when it comes to Four Christmases - it’s two - as in its two leads.
Some movies are called star vehicles because A-list actors drive them, but there’s a certain kind of vehicle where the stars’ charisma overrides every other factor - so much so that their appeal is the only thing the movie has going for it. Everything else - screenplay, direction, the rest of the cast - is minor if not negligible.
How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days was like that. So was The Bucket List. Now Four Christmases joins the group. There are only two reasons to see this movie: Vince Vaughn and Reese Witherspoon.
At first glance, they might seem to be an odd pair - and I’m not referring to the fact that Vaughn is about a foot taller than Witherspoon. I’m talking about how Vaughn’s snappy smart-aleck humor might not have meshed well with Witherspoon’s romantic comedy persona.
That said, people forget that Witherspoon has a steely, acerbic side too, which she displayed in one of her best performances, as Tracy Flick in Election. In the opening scenes with Vaughn, Witherspoon keeps up well with Vaughn’s rapid-fire banter, getting the movie off to a promising start.
Witherspoon and Vaughn play Brad and Kate, a couple who get along great but don’t particularly care to get married and have kids. “We love each other … we don’t want to have to work at it,” Brad says.
Inevitably, work comes into play when bad weather scotches their plans to fly to Fiji for Christmas. Their families see them on the news stuck at the airport, forcing Brad and Kate to spend the holiday with their four dysfunctional (of course) families.
It’s a promising idea almost immediately undermined by sophomoric writing and flatly timed slapstick, particularly with Brad’s father (Robert Duvall) and moronic brothers (Jon Favreau and Tim McGraw). Even the joke that the brothers are named after where they’re conceived isn’t original - Ron Howard does that in real life (e.g. Bryce Dallas Howard). Going from directing Iron Man to playing to one of the hilljack brothers is quite a comedown for Favreau.
Fortunately, the movie begins to pick up steam when the couple visits Kate’s holy roller mother (Mary Steenburgen) and Brad’s earth mother type, played by Sissy Spacek. When the movie tones down the crass comedy and lame physical humor, it gives Witherspoon and Vaughn the chance to come through as a couple worth rooting for. A scene where they’re unexpectedly called upon to play Joseph and Mary in a Christmas play is the highlight of the film.
So even when Four Christmases cops out and tacks on an ending that completely undoes everything that came before it, the movie passes the litmus test of any romantic comedy: Do we care about the couple? Do we want to see them together? In the case of Brad and Kate, I did, just barely - but in the case of Vaughn and Witherspoon, I’d like to see them pick a project that’s actually worth their talents.
GRADE: B-
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