Surviving Christmas ** (2004, Ben Affleck, James Gandolfini, Catherine O’Hara, Christina Applegate) – Classic Movie Review 4681

Ben Affleck stars as rich but lonely and obnoxious young Chicago ad executive Drew Latham, who hires a family to spend the holidays with. They are the wacky Valco family, Tom, Alicia, Christine and Brian (played by James Gandolfini, Christina Applegate, Catherine O’Hara and Josh Zuckerman).

It is not really much of a comedy idea and it is not really surprising that, even with this good cast, they cannot do much with it. Affleck’s Christmas turkey is really low on good jokes or cheer. And it manages to be both in bad taste humour and cloyingly sentimental, alienating both kinds of audiences, as well as all those who love good movies. Just when you need the actors to give a weak script a big boost, the performances are adequate rather than sparkling.

Directed by Mike Mitchell, this 2004 comedy was part of Affleck’s attempt at the time to change his image. In October 2004, Affleck said that he would never star in an action movie again. ‘I don’t want to hold a gun in a movie or blow anything up again. I’m bored with those other kinds of movies. There’s some irony to the fact that I want to do comedies and all these other actors who already do comedies keep asking: “When am I going to get to do my big serious thing?”’ Affleck said he rewrote and improvised the ’bullshit’ script.

The story and screenplay are by Deborah Kaplan and Harry Elfont, with Jennifer Ventimilia (as Jeffrey Ventimilia) and Joshua Sternin also credited for the screenplay.

Also in the cast are Bill Macy, Jennifer Morrison, Udo Kier, David Selby, Stephanie Faracy, Stephen Root, Sy Richardson, Tangie Ambrose and Peter Jason.

Mike Mitchell directed Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo (1999), Sky High (2005), Shrek Forever After (2010), and Trolls (2016).

© Derek Winnert 2013 Classic Movie Review 4681

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