(Rated PG-13)
As though surviving this movie isn’t hard enough, “Surviving Christmas” is an earnest attempt to be a modern day “Planes, Trains and Automobiles” (the John Candy classic) meets Chevy Chase’s “Christmas Vacation”, yet truly fails. Where it does succeed, however, is in trying to present the frustrations and expectations of holidays because of commercial modern-day demands. Ben Affleck is a self-made millionaire without a family (though we don’t find out why until the movie’s end). When he attempts to call-everybody-in-his-black-book and fails to find a friend to enjoy Christmas with, Affleck decides to visit his childhood home to make peace. Said home is now occupied by the Valco’s (James Gandolfini and Catherine O’Hara) an angry, bored, married couple with two unappreciative kids. But in all Affleck’s good intentions of spreading holiday cheer, the chaos remains. Isn’t that always the way for all our families? The only good thing about this movie is coming to terms with the fact that all of us dread holidays. Having said that, “Surviving Christmas” turns out not to be as bad as I had feared (considering it’s directed by “Deuce-Bigalow: Male-Gigolo” former director). It’s that they go from incest to pornography jokes and couple them in with the Dicken’s classic “A Christmas Carol” that really scared me. After “Gigli” and “Paycheck” will Affleck’s career ever be over? Bah humbug.
