Director: Jessie Nelson
Writer: Steven Rogers (screenplay)
Stars: Diane Keaton, John Goodman, Ed Helms
Storyline
When four generations of the Cooper clan come together for their annual Christmas Eve celebration, a series of unexpected visitors and unlikely events turn the night upside down, leading them all toward a surprising rediscovery of family bonds and the spirit of the holiday.
User Reviews
I want to start off by saying that I am fairly easy to please when it comes to movies. The last movie I saw was Burnt, which received generally negative reviews, but I loved it. There are several other movies recently that have received poor reviews that I enjoyed, so it is easy for me to enjoy movies. But wow, this movie was terrible. I truly do not believe how such an ensemble of wonderful actors and actresses could agree to star in this.
A few nit picky things- This movie was beyond cliché. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy cliché movies. I actually like some movies that have generic parts. But the formula for this movie made me sick. It was so cheesy and so cliché that I really, truly at one point began to think this was a parody or satire created film that makes fun of generic and cliché movies, but it wasn't! There was no parody aspect to it. It was just terrible.
Now let's talk about the characters. I want to start with Olivia Wilde's character Eleanor. Basically, when she enters the narrator says she has been hurt by love and closes herself off to love. Which means we all know where this is going. Which, again, I like cliché, but this was over the top. What happens is she meets an army man played very well by Jake Lacy. Their "love story" was so unbelievable because she, as the narrator says, was so hurt by love, yet when she meets Joe (played by Jake Lacy) she for some reason pursues him and instantly trust him. It was like as soon as the narrator said "She could never love again," she instantly falls in love. And what's more, she was a terrible character. She was completely disrespectful to Joe and for some reason he was into her. She would insult his political views and character and act high and mighty when she was the one sleeping with a married man and the one hating her family. Next was Amanda Seyfried and Alan Arkin's story. It was totally weird. It felt like she was into a man 60 years older than her and it was weird. He gets angry instantly at her as she says she is moving because of "great waitress opportunity." I just didn't get it. She was totally thrown in there for no reason. Oh, wait. There was a reason. Literally the only reason she was in this move was to be the eye candy for ed Helm's character Hank. That is it. And of course Hank is divorced because no family in stupid movie like this can stay together apparently. The only saving grace in this movie... the reason I gave it a 2 instead of a 1, was John Goodman and Diane Keaton's character Sam and Charlotte. They were on the verge of divorce after 40 years of marriage and i felt their relationship real. They were the only two people in the movie I hoped things would work out. And things do work out for the two, it was a completely stupid, cheesy, and cliché way it worked out, but I am glad it worked out nevertheless. I literally could not care for any character in this movie. It was hard to look past the terrible plot to even see such great actors dive into such terrible plots and scripts And my last, most annoying thing to say about this movie, is it is completely narrated through the dog. Yup, you heard me right. It was narrated by the dog of the family. Such a lazy and terrible way to make the plot continue. I wanted to like this movie. I really did. I love many of the actors and actresses in it. But They could not save this movie from such a terrible plot and passing and such terrible dialogue. Save your money.
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