Survive This
Surviving Christmas, starring Ben Affleck, James Gandolfini, Christina Applegate, and Catherine O’Hara
Early on in Surviving Christmas, the wretched Ben Affleck holiday vehicle, there’s a scene where the main character pitches a company on a marketing campaign whose main conceit is that drinking lots of alcoholic egg nog will help you survive the holidays with your relatives. It’s not a bad idea—in fact, you might want to get a little loaded before you undertake the equally unpleasant experience of watching this clunker of a movie.
Affleck plays Drew Latham, a super-successful marketer who has no one to spend the holidays with. His prissy girlfriend breaks up with him because he’s unwilling to commit, so on the advice of a therapist, Drew returns to his childhood home to relive his happy experiences there. Trouble is, the family living there now isn’t interested in helping Drew deal with his issues, so Drew cheerily offers them $250,000 to be his surrogate family for the holidays. The Valcos, played by James Gandolfini and the always-hilarious Catherine O’Hara, being healthy, red-blooded capitalists, accept.
What follows is mildly funny as the two sides hammer out the details of the deal (Santa hat or no Santa hat; chirpy Christmas carols or no chirpy Christmas carols, etc) and the Valcos attempt to put up with their obnoxious houseguest. And once the Valcos’ daughter, Alicia (Christina Applegate), shows up, she and Affleck generate some real heat. The problem, aside from a script that seems breezily unencumbered by any need to make sense, is that you never end up caring enough about Affleck’s character to make the explanation for his loveless predicament and subsequent redemption at all compelling. Instead, we just get wacky joke after joke, some of which aren’t bad but are certainly less funny for being disconnected from the rest of the film, as well as unconvincing reversals in how characters feel about one another, especially Alicia’s feelings towards Drew.
In telling the screwball story of a jackass who winds up redeeming himself, Surviving Christmas seems to want to be a Christmas version of Groundhog Day, but the difference is that Ben Affleck does not possess anything close to Bill Murray’s ability to somehow elicit sympathy for an unsympathetic character. Chances are, Affleck could spend every day for the rest of his life trying to achieve what Murray does and still not get there.
Stars: * 1/2
Early on in Surviving Christmas, the wretched Ben Affleck holiday vehicle, there’s a scene where the main character pitches a company on a marketing campaign whose main conceit is that drinking lots of alcoholic egg nog will help you survive the holidays with your relatives. It’s not a bad idea—in fact, you might want to get a little loaded before you undertake the equally unpleasant experience of watching this clunker of a movie.
Affleck plays Drew Latham, a super-successful marketer who has no one to spend the holidays with. His prissy girlfriend breaks up with him because he’s unwilling to commit, so on the advice of a therapist, Drew returns to his childhood home to relive his happy experiences there. Trouble is, the family living there now isn’t interested in helping Drew deal with his issues, so Drew cheerily offers them $250,000 to be his surrogate family for the holidays. The Valcos, played by James Gandolfini and the always-hilarious Catherine O’Hara, being healthy, red-blooded capitalists, accept.
What follows is mildly funny as the two sides hammer out the details of the deal (Santa hat or no Santa hat; chirpy Christmas carols or no chirpy Christmas carols, etc) and the Valcos attempt to put up with their obnoxious houseguest. And once the Valcos’ daughter, Alicia (Christina Applegate), shows up, she and Affleck generate some real heat. The problem, aside from a script that seems breezily unencumbered by any need to make sense, is that you never end up caring enough about Affleck’s character to make the explanation for his loveless predicament and subsequent redemption at all compelling. Instead, we just get wacky joke after joke, some of which aren’t bad but are certainly less funny for being disconnected from the rest of the film, as well as unconvincing reversals in how characters feel about one another, especially Alicia’s feelings towards Drew.
In telling the screwball story of a jackass who winds up redeeming himself, Surviving Christmas seems to want to be a Christmas version of Groundhog Day, but the difference is that Ben Affleck does not possess anything close to Bill Murray’s ability to somehow elicit sympathy for an unsympathetic character. Chances are, Affleck could spend every day for the rest of his life trying to achieve what Murray does and still not get there.
Stars: * 1/2
posted by Captain Nemo at 1:51 AM
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