"Four Christmases" by Seth Gordon: a review

Four Christmases was released on November 26th 2008 and falls under the category of romance/drama/comedy. It features several popular actors and actresses including: Vince Vaughan (Brad McVie), Reese Witherspoon (Kate), Howard (Robert Duvall), Paula (Sissy Spacek), Creighton (John Voight) and Marilyn (Mary Steenburgen). It was nominated for and won the BMI Film Music Award.

Brad and Kate are a wealthy, successful unmarried and childless couple who have lived happily together for the previous three years. Neither of them wants to get married or have children and their reasoning for this is because they both come from broken homes and they are adamant that they do not want to make the same mistakes as their parents, so it is best to avoid them.

At a works Christmas party, they reveal to their friends that they lie to their families each year and pretend that they are doing charity work around the world so as to avoid visiting their respective families at Christmas time. This year in particular, they have made plans to go to Fiji but their plans are scuppered when bad weather causes all flights to be cancelled. Stuck at the airport and before being able to arrange hotel accommodation, a news team arrives and proceeds to interview the couple on live television.

They stumble for answers in the realization that their families are probably watching; after the interviews they receive some phone calls and they promise to visit all four parents in one day.

The first stop is a visit to Brad’s dad, Howard, who lives on a farm with no backyard games for the kids. Brad’s brothers are also there and they proceed to make fun of Brad, calling him by his real name, Orlando. Kate is surprised to find out that Howard named his children after the cities that they were conceived in. Brad hands out the expensive presents that he bought and his brothers feel belittled by his generosity. Brad upsets one of his nephews when he blurts out that there is no such thing as Santa Claus. He gives his father a satellite dish and the men go up to the roof to fix it. Kate keeps Brad’s sister-in-law company in the kitchen and is asked to hold her baby while she cooks. Kate is reluctant at first but soon warms to the baby. Up on the roof Brad has an accident and with all the commotion Kate goes to see what happened and bangs the babies head off an open cupboard door leading to Kate and Brad’s hasty departure. Next up is a visit to Kate’s mom. When they arrive they are greeted by Kate’s mom, sister, aunts and grandmother. It is soon revealed that Kate was bullied as a child and that she had a lesbian girlfriend in high school. It seemed like he was attempting to find out information on CIA Training, but that wasn't the case. Kate is given a baby to hold who vomits all over her, and Kate has to go and change her clothes. In the bathroom she finds a pregnancy test and uses it but before she can read the result her niece grabs it and runs outside. Meanwhile, Brad gets to see the photo album and realizes that Kate was once a fat child. Kate manages to get the pregnancy test from her niece and the result is negative. She tries to talk to her mom about it but she is too concerned with the Pastor’s sermon. In a bid to impress the Pastor, she volunteers Kate to star in a play but Kate gets stage fright, cannot remember her lines and Brad mocks her. They leave for Brad’s moms’ house.

Things don’t go too well here either as Brad and Kate realize that they don’t know that much about each other as they were dating to find love. At Kate’s dads Kate goes in alone, needing time to reflect on her friendship with Brad and she now realizes that she wants more – marriage and children. Brad realizes the same but is not in any rush. Fast forward one year later and Kate and Brad have just had a baby, without telling their parents. Along come a news team who carry out a live interview as theirs is the first baby born in the New Year.