Starring Reese Witherspoon, Vince Vaughn. Written by Matt R Allen, Caleb Wilson, Jon Lucas, Scott Moore. Directed by Seth Gordon. (14A) 82 min. Opens Nov 26.
More of a Eugene O’Neill horror show than the playful holiday flick its makers evidently intended, Four Christmases will at least feel authentically gruelling to people who already regard December 25 as a long day’s journey into familial dysfunction. Cruel and crude, what passes for humour here — unfunny pratfalls, callbacks to humiliating childhood traumas, potshots at poor white trash, disgust over the notion of geriatric sex and, as the ultimate bottom-scraper, two baby-puke jokes — provides no respite.
No wonder Reese Witherspoon and Vince Vaughn can’t muster much enthusiasm or chemistry as they play Kate and Brad, a San Francisco couple who must visit each of the four households of their divorced parents on Christmas when their plans for a tropical holiday fall through. Tensions surface as they realize how their family issues have affected their own attitudes toward marriage and baby-making. But neither they nor their grotesque relatives — including Robert Duvall as Brad’s mean pa and Mary Steenburgen and Sissy Spacek as their too-hot-to-trot mothers — evince anything resembling authentic human feeling. The continual inability of director Seth Gordon (maker of the doc hit The King of Kong) to successfully orchestrate even the most elementary gag also makes Four Christmases about as appetizing as four consecutive helpings of Jell-O salad.