Review of Four Christmases (2008) by Luke R — 31 Dec 2012

Four Christmases (under the title 'Four Holidays' in Australia) is a barely passable movie with a plodding storyline and plot that fails to fire.

At the top of the cast are Vince Vaughn and Reese Witherspoon. I am ordinarily a fan of Witherspoon and to a lesser extent Vaughn, but here they are sadly out of form (Witherspoon in particular) and whilst there are a few funny moments to be had (and you would hope so given it falls in the comedy genre), the plot falls flat.

The remainder of the cast don't exactly inspire, either. Jon Voight is likable in his small part, whilst the others - especially Mary Steenburgen - try too hard and just don't come across well on screen.

The plot itself is rather lame. The two main characters have made up their mind regarding marriage and a family (that is, to not get married and to not have kids) yet by the end of the movie they clearly changed their mind on at least one of these life decisions. Whilst I'm all for character development, this went a bit too far for my liking - as there seemed no possibility of this after watching the first 15 minutes. It just wasn't believable.

This is not a movie I'll watch again. And I certainly wouldn't recommend it to others. Just watch 'Serendipity' or 'The Family Stone' for a good Christmas movie instead!