Stars:
*** 1/2
Rating: PG-13 for language and some violence
Run Time: 1 hour, 57 minutes
Just in
time for the holidays a cornucopia of cine-cheer and family
dysfunction.
All
is right with the Whitfields this holiday season, at least on paper.
Perpetually positive matriarch Ma’Dere (Loretta Devine) and supportive squeeze
Joe Black (delicious Delroy Lindo) are throwing the doors open on a festive
celebration that’s drawing the whole clan together for the first time in four years.
A
handful of offspring descend with armloads of gifts and their own private baggage.
Michael aka “Baby” (Chris Brown) has a secret wish to sing and the pipes to
work it, but fears Ma’Dere’s wrath (deadbeat dad abandoned his brood to pursue
his music).
Brother
Claude (“Stomp the Yard” hunk Columbus Short) takes a break from military duty
to drop an emotional bomb with lingering consequences. Hot on his heels
homemaker sister Lisa (Regina King) kow-tows to her cheating husband and
cat-fights with glamorous sib Kelli (Sharon Leal).
Rounding
out the kin are conflicted college brain Mel (Lauren London) and shady big bro
Quentin (Idris Elba), a traveling musician who’s up to no good.
Merry
Christmas to all and to all a good night!
It’s
been done before and been done to death but “Christmas” embraces its
sugar-plumbed clichés then digs deeper to distinguish itself from the pack. Glossy
façade of luscious eye-candy and juicy backbiting masks a melodrama-stuffed
narrative – divorce, pregnancy, firearms and arrests– that maintains a snappy
pace. Rhythm is surprisingly, pleasingly, self-assured; the spirit buoyant and
infectious.
Performances
are rock-solid across the boards with Lindo in the lead as a font of wisdom and
charisma. Catchy vocal numbers and a soul-train finale add to the revelry.
Fizzy holiday fun!