Almost Christmas (2016) Universal/Comedy-Drama RT: 111 minutes Rated PG-13 (suggestive material, drug content, language) Director: David E. Talbert Screenplay: David E. Talbert Music: John Paesano Cinematography: Larry Blanford Release date: November 11, 2016 (US) Cast: Danny Glover, Mo’Nique, Kimberly Elise, J.B. Smoove, Romany Malco, Nicole Ari Parker, Gabrielle Union, Jessie T. Usher, Omar Epps, John Michael Higgins, DC Young Fly, Keri Hilson, Nadej Bailey, Alkoya Brunson, Marley Taylor, Gladys Knight. Box Office: $42.6M (US)
Rating: ***
Nothing brings families together like the holidays. Nothing brings out the best (and worst) in family members like the holidays. It’s the time of year when we’re supposed to put aside all differences and petty squabbles to celebrate Christmas with our loved ones. After all, nothing is more important than family, right? They’re the ones who really have your back, especially during difficult times. In a perfect world, this is how it’s supposed to work. Well, it’s NOT a perfect world (far from it actually) and family holiday gatherings don’t always go smoothly. This applies to both the real world (I plead the fifth!) AND the reel world. The latest example of the latter is Almost Christmas, a funny and heartwarming comedy-drama from writer-director David E. Talbert (First Sunday, Baggage Claim).
It’ll be the first time Walter Meyers’ family (Glover, the Lethal Weapon movies) has gotten together since his wife died some ten months earlier. Like any family, they’re just this side of dysfunctional. All Walter wants is for his family to spend five days under the same roof without killing each other. That’s going to be a pretty tall order.
Almost Christmas read likes a checklist for all holiday-themed comedy-dramas centered on large families. With a house full of guests comes baggage. A lot of it. Both physical and emotional. Walter’s four grown children and their respective spouses, children, friends and others don’t arrive empty-handed. They have issues and then some. Eldest daughter Cheryl (Elise, Diary of a Mad Black Woman) is married to an idiot, Lonnie (comedian Smoove), who talks non-stop about his pro-basketball days. Never mind that he played in Croatia. She also doesn’t get along with younger sister Rachel (Union, Top Five), a fiercely independent type who refuses to accept financial help from her family even though she’s drowning in debt. She also has no time for next-door neighbor/high school boyfriend Malachi’s (Epps, Higher Learning) attempts to rekindle their old romance. Eldest son Christian (Malco, Think Like a Man) is running for office meaning he’s always preoccupied with his campaign. Youngest son Evan (Usher, Independence Day: Resurgence), a late-in-life child, is a talented college athlete with a secret painkiller addiction.
There are also two cute-as-buttons young grandchildren (Brunson and Taylor), Rachel’s preteen daughter (Bailey, Containment) who records everything on her cell phone, Christian’s supportive wife Sonya (Parker, Boogie Nights), an ever-present campaign manager (Higgins, Yes Man), Evan’s womanizing best friend Eric (rapper Fly) and brash Aunt May (comedian Mo’Nique) who always tells it like it is. Let’s see, what else. Potential new contributors want Christian to support a rezoning bill that will force the local homeless shelter to close. It’s a conflict because his mother volunteered there. Also, Walter contemplates selling his house, something he has yet to share with family. That everything will come to a head at Christmas dinner is a given. That pretty much covers the entire list.
Is Almost Christmas clichéd and predictable? You bet it is. There’s not a single development or outcome we don’t see coming. This is NOT a bad thing. It’s this sense of familiarity that makes it agreeable holiday-themed entertainment. Every year, I lament the sorry state of Christmas comedies. They’re so crass, crude, cynical and mean-spirited anymore. Mere memories of Deck the Halls, Four Christmases, Surviving Christmas and, the worst offender of all, Christmas with the Kranks make me nauseous. I’ll admit to liking Bad Santa, A Very Harold & Kumar Christmas and last year’s The Night Before, but the bad definitely outweighs the good in this instance. With that in mind, I really hoped Almost Christmas would restore my faith in Christmas-themed movies. It does. It’s sweet, warm and funny.
Food plays a big role in Almost Christmas. There’s a subplot involving the wife/mother’s tin of recipes. Nobody can seem to find it. They want to recreate one of her holiday feasts; they want to cook everything exactly the way she did it. Walter keeps trying to make one of her sweet potato pies. At one point, Aunt May says that her late sister is still there in spirit watching over them, that she’s in every pot and pan. It’s a beautiful sentiment actually; I’d like to think my own dearly departed mom is still at every holiday dinner. As expected, the missing tin turns up at the exact right moment.
What really makes Almost Christmas work is its game cast. Everybody does a good job with their roles. Glover, as always, is excellent as the often-exasperated family patriarch more concerned with peace at home than on Earth. The show stealer, however, is Mo’Nique who took home an Oscar for her frightening dramatic turn as an abusive mother in 2009’s Precious. As the family auntie (we all have one of those, don’t we?), she reminds us that she’s first and foremost a gifted comedienne. Here, she dominates every scene she’s in even if she’s simply sitting on the sidelines commenting on whatever happens to be going on. She sports a series of dresses and wigs that she obtained over the years singing back-up for some of the biggest names in the music business. I love her bit about Lonnie destroying her Chaka Khan (“Chaka Khan! Chaka Khan! Chaka Khan!”) dress.
Almost Christmas has its fair share of funny moments. I laughed out loud a few times. One of the best bits involves Lonnie trying to repair a beloved rooftop ornament, an endeavor that yields roughly the same results as Clark Griswold attempting the same. It’s also a very warm-hearted movie. Even with all the fighting and not-so-hidden resentments, there’s a lot of love in that house. I’m glad to finally see a new Christmas movie with a sincere heart. It never once feels false or insincere. Almost Christmas is the kind of movie you can see with your parents or grandparents. Even with the PG-13 rating (for suggestive material and mature themes), you could bring the kids. It’s a genuinely nice movie. Think of it as an early Christmas present from Hollywood.
