Four Christmases (PG-13) *

This photo released by Warner Bros. Pictures shows Reese Witherspoon as Kate and Vince Vaughn as Brad as they discover the pitfalls of holding a baby in New Line Cinema romantic comedy, Four Christmases. Photo: AP/John P. Johnson, Warner Bros.

 

Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald

The most inspired thing about Four Christmases is the casting of Vince Vaughn and Reese Witherspoon as Brad and Kate, a happily unmarried couple who are in love and live together, but have no plans to ever tie the knot or raise a family. Vaughn and Witherspoon bring dramatically different approaches to comedy, but playing opposite each other, they find a suitable medium between his lampshade-on-the-head stylings and her subtler, reactionary brand of humor.

Too bad the movie itself never puts them to much use. The feature debut of director Seth Gordon (who previously made the terrific documentary The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters), Four Christmases is sour to the point of curdling, a satirical look at the holidays a la Bad Santa that does exactly what that film avoided: come off as both off-puttingly misanthropic and gloppily sentimental.

The shaky premise forces Brad and Kate, who have never met each other's families despite having lived together for several years, to visit all four of their divorced parents on one frantic Christmas day.

Brad's dad (Robert Duvall) is a brutish redneck who lives with his other two sons (Jon Favreau and Tim McGraw), cage wrestlers who do nothing but practice their moves on Brad. His mother (Sissy Spacek) is a spacey hippie who likes her men young (she is now living with one of Brad's childhood pals). Kate's mother (Mary Steenburgen) is a card-carrying cougar who surrounds herself with like-minded women, while her father (Jon Voight), the only seemingly sane parent of the four, also happens to be the wealthiest of the bunch.

Over the course of the day, Brad and Kate will find their relationship tested and discover new feelings about their attitude toward marriage and children. What they don't find, unfortunately, is much to laugh at that isn't mean-spirited, obvious or plainly annoying. Vaughn and Witherspoon are good enough together to be paired up for another comedy: A sequence in which they dress up as Mary and Joseph for a Nativity play is genuinely funny. The rest of Four Christmases doesn't do them justice.

Cast: Vince Vaughn, Reese Witherspoon, Robert Duvall, Sissy Spacek, Jon Voight, Jon Favreau, Mary Steenburgen, Dwight Yoakam, Tim McGraw

Director: Seth Gordon

Screenwriters: Matt R. Allen, Caleb Wilson, Jon Lucas, Scott Moore

Producers: Roger Birnbaum, Gary Barber, Jonathan Glickman

A Warner Bros. release. Running time: 85 minutes. Vulgar language, adult themes.

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