Four Christmases
The story: Brad (Vince Vaughn) and Kate (Reese Witherspoon) have been wriggling out of Christmas family gatherings and spending their holidays in exotic locales. When they are found out, they end up visiting both sets of divorced parents. Hence the four Christmases of the title.

’Tis the season for festive comedies.
Just as the lights go up like clockwork in Orchard Road, you can be sure of an offering or two from Hollywood, milking the yuletide tradition of family gatherings for yuks in films such as Home For The Holidays (1995) and Christmas With The Kranks (2004).
In the latest twist on the formula, the writers up the ante by plying the harried couple with four different home gatherings, promising more excruciating embarrassments and awkward situations.
Take Brad’s brothers, for example. They are tattooed paramilitary types who take pleasure in body combat. So Brad soon finds himself the object of flying tackles as his curmudgeonly father (Robert Duvall) looks on in approval.
As the day progresses, Brad and Kate discover things they have kept from each other, such as Brad’s real name and Kate’s fat camp detours as a child. As the skeletons come tumbling out, she begins to question their relationship and where it is headed.
Four Christmases turns out to be a drama about two people learning to commit to each other in the guise of a genre comedy.
Sure, the lessons about familial and romantic love are pat but there is a welcome bounce and edge to the writing.
It certainly helps to have the couple in crisis played by the likeable and winsome Witherspoon and Vaughn, even though his gut is starting to look like it needs its own wardrobe.
Balancing broad comedy with romance is not an easy task but director Seth Gordon pulls it off deftly, delivering a worthy treat for the holidays.
(ST)