Four Holidays

Review by Sean Lynch
View Trailer : Four Holidays

There are times when you really have to wonder why we even have family get togethers at all?

Much like a polite, yet slightly awkward conversation that has run it's course between a few office "aquaintences" (and everyone involved is just waiting and praying for someone to give the old "Well, I'll see you later...") Christmas dinners are a bit of a sham.

No one has fun, everyone dreads it, everyone knows no one else wants to be there either, and everyone just tries to keep it nice and polite -- because for some reason we have been trained to believe we have to.

But if everyone already knows there is a big white elephant in the room... why do we continue on with this bizarre and often painful tradition?

One can only assume it's so studios have a subject for family friendly comedies come December.

Sure, Christmas comedies are predictable, but much like the holiday itself they are a distraction from the troubles of everyday life - they are more comforting than a slice of cake and, most importantly are damn reliable.

In short, there is no way in hell you can walk away from a Christmas comedy feeling dissapointed.

And Four Holidays is no different.

In fact, this latest Christmas caper is one of the finest examples of the genre: great casting, simple premise, fun set-comedy pieces and enjoyable enough to ensure yearly TV viewings without it ever feeling stale.

The flick follows upscale, happily unmarried San Franciscan couple Kate (Reece "Girls Think I'm Cute" Witherspoon) and Brad (Vince "I've Been Binge Drinking Far Too Much Since I Was A Skinny Actor" Vaughn) who find their plans for an exotic Christmas vacation to Fiji ruined thanks to a thick fog grounding all outgoing flights.

To make the matter worse, the couple are outed on the TV news and the family centric holiday they had gleefully avoided is now a sentence they must face.

And not just one family event... but four divorced, redneck, relative choked festivitals - full to the brim of repressed childhood fears, reopened adolescent wounds and plenty of opportunities to question their own futures together.

Four Holidays is the perfect holiday comedy. It hits all the right notes, it gives Vaughn a chance to do his "Chipmunk on Speed" fast talking thing without it over-staying it's welcome and there are some genuinely funny moments.

The slew of bit-parts are great fun (Jon Favreau and Mary Steenburgen are particular highlights), with each "family visit" essentially short and sharp sketches about unhappy families - meaning nothing ever seems to drag on for to long, and the pace never seems to slow down.

Vaughn's performance as "Joseph" in the Nativity play is a stand out. 

A special mention must also be made of Brad's trailer trash sister-in-law, a character who should have really been the basis of the American Kath & Kim.

Yet for some reason, critics have been quite uneven about Four Holidays. But how can you be? It delivers everything (if not more) than it suggests it will. And unlike certain other films, which shall remain nameless, it's not claiming to be "The next Gone With The Wind".

But what bugs me isn't so much the movie itself - in fact, I loved it - but moreso it's title. Seriously, sometimes I just don't understand political correctness at all.

It makes even less sense to me as to why you would take a movie like Four Christmases (as it is called in the United States) and rename it Four Holidays for Australian audiences... despite the fact that the entire movie is well and truly about CHRISTMAS.

Sure, being PC works a treat when you need to tell your Grandpa not to refer to your gay cousins as "those fruits" when everyone is gathered around the dining table.

But, other than that, it's really just a patronising way of pretending to ignore something we all think about as soon as the "PC Replacement Word" has been thrown into the mix. Who are we trying to kid?

It's not as if the Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist and Scientological communities are ignorantly going to walk into the cinemas thinking: "Look Mustafa, a family friendly comedy of a nondescript religious background starring that delightful Reece Witherspoon - finally!!"

And even if they did somehow bypass the fact the trailer is covered in the traditonal colours of St. Nick... won't they eventually cotten onto the fact this isn't a movie just about "Holidays" less than two minutes into the film? The mind boggles.

But I digress...

Four Holidays is the perfect Christmas treat for all movie-goers.

In the tradition of Christmas Vacation it isn't soley aimed at the tykes -- Christmas With The Kranks this is not.

So let's all just forget whether Christmas is for one religion or the other and just all take solace in the fact that Four Holidays honours a common bond that ties all cultures and creeds together... the hatred of our own family members.

4 out of 5

Four Holidays
Australian release: 4th December, 2009
Official Site: Four Holidays
Cast: Vince Vaughn, Reese Witherspoon, Robert Duvall, Jon Favreau, Jon Voight
Director: Seth Gordon