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Bookmark this pageFour Christmases (2008)
Director: Seth Gordon
Movie review
From Time Out London
Family plus Christmas equals nightmare. That seems to be the calculation guiding this festive frolic, in which Vince Vaughn and Reese Witherspoon tell their respective folks they’re doing charity work so that they can avoid the usual get-together. Alas, their ruse is uncovered, so they end up visiting all four post-divorce enclaves in one fateful Christmas Day.Playing out a seasonal riff on the same comedy of embarrassment as ‘Meet the Parents’, Vaughn’s mean old coot of a pater Robert Duvall and wrestling-freak sibling Jon Favreau, along with Mary Steenburgen as Witherspoon’s lubricious yet church-happy mom, supply plentiful warning of the dangers of procreation. As we grind through the gears of consecutive drop-ins, however, behind the strained knockabout lurks a none-too-subtle conformist agenda, assuring the unmarried, childless couple that their only chance for genuine happiness is to get with the family programme.
‘Humbug!’, we say. Dismaying, indeed, that a movie purportedly selling itself on refreshing nay-saying scepticism should so cravenly succumb to the same old schmaltz, without the craft even to make the process seem anything other than a series of empty would-be ‘feelgood’ platitudes. Still, there are occasional felicities en route, with some ably delivered ‘trailer moment’ slapstick – watch out for that baby vomit! – and the cast do their best with the uneven material, even if Vaughn in particular makes the patter a tad too effortful. Nostalgic for some to have him and Favreau reunited here, yet seeing the ‘Swingers’ duo desperately mugging away in such mainstream mulch, their catchphrase ‘You’re so money’ takes on an awful new resonance.
Author: Trevor Johnston
Time Out London Issue 1997, November 29 – December 3, 2008
User reviews of this film
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- beth said...
- Posted on Nov 28 2008 22:24 reaaaalllly good 1000000% go and see it !
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- SHAMA said...
- Posted on Nov 28 2008 12:20 this movie was an absolute dissappointment. i dnt know why they bothered making this movie. total waste of time!
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- georgia said...
- Posted on Nov 28 2008 11:37 BEST FILM EVER
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- bob said...
- Posted on Nov 27 2008 18:37 it is rubbish
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- Leigh said...
- Posted on Nov 27 2008 14:55 Not christmassy at all.... no christmas songs, usual comedy. Nothing special at all, 100% disappointed!
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- Will said...
- Posted on Nov 22 2008 15:03 Don't waste your time on "Four Christmases". It is cliché collection of bland, formula gags - boring and not funny at all.
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Cast & crew
Director: Seth Gordon
Cast: Vince Vaughn, Reese Witherspoon, Robert Duvall, Jon Favreau, Sissy Spacek, Jon Voight, Mary Steenburgen, Dwight Yoakam, Tim McGraw, Kristin Chenoweth, Colleen Camp full cast
Rated: 12A
Duration: 88 mins
UK Release: Nov 28 2008
US Release: Nov 26 2008
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