Column:

Humor in 'Four Christmases' is too stale

"Four Christmases" makes up for tired tricks with a likeable cast.

By Joey Vergara

Published Dec. 11, 2008

"Four Christmases" belongs in the genre of post-"Christmas Vacation" holiday movies that turns ridiculous characters into caricatures and moves familial problems to coarser levels. The redneck, bumbling cousin is transformed into the NASCAR-loving amateur UFC fighter brother. The hysterical sled shoot down a hillside becomes a foolish fall down the roof after a failed satellite dish installation.

It's not that "Four Christmases" ruins good jokes, but it's missing much of the joy that films like "Christmas Vacation" had. There's only so much baby vomit and Vince Vaughn goofiness that one can take before the humor begins to wear thin. By the time Vaughn and Reese Witherspoon reach the third or fourth Christmas of their day, the jokes slow down and the rom-com moral lesson is inevitable

Kate (Witherspoon) and Brad (Vaughn) are the Grinches that should know better but still take the holiday season with a grain of salt. They skip out on Christmas with family each year in favor of traveling to exotic countries under the guise of charity work, and only when entrapped by canceled flights do they stick around San Francisco to visit each of their respective parents and kin.

Each family offers a lesson in how far the apple can fall from the tree. Brad is an ultra-successful, big city lawyer who comes from a family of testosterone-filled buffoons. His hippie mother is dating one of his high school friends. Kate, on the other hand, has distanced herself from one of the world's biggest packs of cougars, if only because she wants to forget all her childhood trauma as an extremely overweight teen.

For all the "love thy family" the film suggests, the families — with the small exception of Jon Voight's character — warrant very little respect. The time spent at each home by the desperate couple only adds to their frustration and the audience's. There's good reason they have avoided their families on Christmas for three years and it's hard to hold that against them. Even cousin Eddie of "Christmas Vacation," room temperature and all, comes through in the end with a kind heart. This isn't a lesson that you should love your family with all its foibles. Just be sure to book a back-up flight at another airport.

So the real point is what Kate and Brad learn about themselves and their relationship. Even if everyone doesn't exactly come together, they do. The disconnect between Christmas movie and romantic comedy becomes a little too clear for a film entitled "Four Christmases."

As a holiday movie, "Four Christmases" makes up for its tired tricks with a likeable and generally talented cast. Although what Dwight Yoakam as a megachurch preacher and Tim McGraw, playing Brad's brother that isn't Jon Favreau, are doing in the movie is beyond me.

Vaughn and Witherspoon fit well together as the Chevy Chase and Beverly D'Angelo of the 21st Century, but the humor is a little stale.