Season's Beatings

Vince Vaughn is funny.  Since taking Hollywood by storm in "Swingers" he has tinkered with slight variations on the same character (see "Old School" and "The Breakup") often enough that that he has found the right balance of charm, self-interest, and unapologetic childishness.  Intellectually, you may not like what his characters stand for, but you can't help but smile as these boy-men skip through a steady stream of rapid-fire mini-monologues driven by satirical self-interest.

Reese Witherspoon is a gifted actress with a talent for comedy.  Quietly turning in quality performance after quality performance ("Pleasantville", "Election", "Walk the Line") she has become a staple of American Cinema, yet is also willing to jump into a comedic performance with both feet ("Legally Blonde"). Her charisma is so compelling that it draws-in even the most jaded cinema-goer.

They deserve a better movie than this.

To begin with, the story of a self-interested yuppie couple, Brad (Vaughn) and Kate (Witherspoon), who create insultingly absurd lies about going to help orphans in impoverished countries rather than spend the holidays with their family is hardly a draw. This is only made worse by the fact that the screenplay (credited to four writers – never a good sign) never seems to make a commitment to either black comedy or romantic comedy, and suffers as a result. Scenes that could play well in a black comedy (Brad being beaten mercilessly by his brothers) are just uncomfortable and, conversely, scenes that could be touching in a romantic comedy (anything at Kate's father's house) seem completely out of place. The whole thing also has an extremely rushed feel, playing more like a series of vignettes than a complete movie. In spite of this, Vaughn manages to deliver a clever performance, but you can't help but feel that most of this is due to self-scripting. Witherspoon, stuck in the stereotypical female role of 'wanting more from the relationship', does not fare as well.

The supporting cast (Robert Duvall, Jon Voight, Jon Favreau, and Sissy Spacek, to name a few) are both the saving grace and the biggest source of disappointment. They definitely make their half-baked characters more interesting to watch, but it's hard to not feel tremendous disappointment that the favors clearly called in to get them on the set were so sadly wasted.

To be fair, there are a few very funny bits – Brad & Kate's performance at Pastor Phil's (Dwight Yoakam) church and the visit to Phil's mother's (Sissy Spacek) house – but they only serve to make you realize how tired the rest of the bits are. In that sense, "Four Christmases" delivers more frustration than laughs.