We judge it for you: Four Christmases

Reese Witherspoon and Vince Vaughn in Four Christmases

The holidays always means a slew of seasonal films, but Four Christmases is a little different than most. It lacks the treacly oversweetened character of some earlier incarnations, but still manages to impart a Special Lesson. The film follows a couple as they visit their four families (one for each divorced parent) one Christmas, with each family as a separate vignette; each is a separate entry in a veritable scrapbook of the modern American family.

Brad (Vince Vaughn) and Kate (Reese Witherspoon) are a San Francisco couple who depart on a tropical vacation every year for the holidays, leaving behind parents, stepparents, siblings, nieces and nephews. But on their way to the latest exotic getaway, their delayed flight means they are suddenly all too available this year.

Brad and Kate, who do everything in their power to keep from becoming like their parents and families, have ended up shutting them out completely. Not only do they not allow themselves to know their own families, but they keep each other away as well. At every home the couple visits, the film seems to ask (without much subtlety): How well can you really know your partner if you don’t know where they came from?

Vaughn and Witherspoon, while not always entirely believable as a couple, at least make an entertaining duo. But the film is much improved by the supporting characters playing their families, most notably Jon Favreau as Brad’s cage-fighting brother Denver, Robert Duvall as Brad’s old-fashioned father Howard, Mary Steenburgen as Kate’s newly religious mother Marilyn and Kristin Chenoweth as Kate’s extremely peppy sister Courtney. They help turn Brad and Kate’s families from simple stereotypes into realistically damaged people who have been through a lot together, know each other’s shortcomings, and love each other anyway. Because that’s what families do, especially in holiday movies.

Film is directed by Seth Gordon and also stars Sissy Spacek (Paula), Jon Voight (Creighton), Dwight Yoakam (Pastor Phil), Tim McGraw (Dallas) and Katy Mixon (Susan).

Grade: B+