'This Christmas' underwhelms
Published Nov. 30, 2007
One must step idly through the minefield of clichés when making a Christmas movie. Too many Yuletide movies rely on the usual timeworn themes as if they were Tiny Tim's crutches.
You will constantly see onscreen couples embrace as the snow starts to fall or an ending that consists of a smiling family joining hands around a table.
The problem is that Christmas is a holiday of clichés itself. The same holiday routine year in and year out just doesn't translate well onto the big screen.
Maybe that's why "This Christmas" focuses so much on the secrets that families keep from each other.
Unfortunately, writer/director Preston A. Whitmore II loads up a too-long film with too many characters and secrets.
What's left is a rush for everything to get wrapped up with a neat little bow and an ending that underwhelms.
The Whitfields are celebrating a family Christmas, and all of the family members seem to have some skeletons in their stockings.
The matriarch of the family (Loretta Devine) and her new beau (Delroy Lindo) are trying to keep everything together amid the Christmas holiday. The first 20 minutes of the movie are a parade of characters.
There are things that work and things that don't for "This Christmas." Instead of relying on commonly used Bing Crosby or Burl Ives carols, the soundtrack is set to Christmas jazz.
With the exception of Mekhi Phifer and Chris Brown, "This Christmas" also uses a fairly unknown cast to better convey a feeling of reality.
The family chemistry and believability works, although Devine's character looks about the same age as her oldest son.
The biggest problem of "This Christmas" comes from being too long and too loaded.
Whitmore takes every family issue known to man and lays them on the siblings.
It gets to a point where the audience is left identifying the character solely off his or her secrets (for example, the sister with the cheating husband or the son in an interracial marriage).
All these characters and problems produce a cluttered plot. Whitmore could have settled for maybe two or three fewer siblings and about a half-hour less on time.
After the aforementioned parade of characters that starts the movie, the next 10 minutes are spent on Brown singing. All 30 minutes are completely disposable.
When it comes down to it, "This Christmas" is just a forgettable holiday movie that's more suited to the Hallmark Channel than the megaplexes.
There's decent acting and lukewarm humor, but "This Christmas" is a tree with just too much tinsel.