CINEMA: Four Christmases

This year’s Christmas comedy is a rather poor cousin to Meet The Parents – a film it very obviously strives to emulate, yet fails to do so. For whereas Meet The Parents had characters you actually rather liked, those in Four Christmases lack charm and warmth.

Brad (Vince Vaughn) and Kate (Reese Witherspoon) have been living together for years and have managed to dodge spending time with their families at Christmas by flying abroad – ostensibly to do charity work, but actually to have a vacation in the sun. But this year they arrive at San Francisco airport to discover thick fog has grounded every single flight and with both their sets of parents divorced, they are forced to go and visit all four of their families on Christmas day. They start with Brad’s dad (Robert Duvall) and atrocious brothers (Jon Favreau and Tim McGraw), and then work their way through Kate’s mother (Mary Steenburgen), his mother (Sissy Spacek), finally ending the day at Kate’s dad’s (Jon Voight) house. In between they are ritually humiliated, physically pummelled, and have to relive childhood nightmares.

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The slapstick rolls on throughout, however the sight gags were faster, wittier and just plain funnier in Meet The Parents. Here the humour seems strained and jokes are sustained beyond the point where they are still funny. It does have its moments; you just have to sit through long, boring unfunny patches to get to them.      Dee Pilgrim