Some great moments along with some fairly flat ones add up to a Christmas comedy which doesn't quite sparkle as brightly as it should.
But it's still good fun if you're wanting to stoke up those festive feelings by ingesting a few home-spun all-American platitudes.
It seems that we can't fully know each other until we know each other's families. At least that's what Kate (Reese W
itherspoon) and Brad (Vince Vaughn) discover in a family-packed Christmas.
Usually they jet off somewhere self-indulgent, kidding themselves they need only each other - all under the pretence of doing overseas charity work, a guise which stops their respective families from whingeing about not visiting them.
But then one Christmas, a fog-bound San Francisco scuppers their plans and forces them into the round of visits they so desperately try to avoid.
Brad's dad and brothers are violent nutcases; his mum is having it away with Brad's smarmy ex-best mate; and Kate's mum is besotted with an OTT charistmatic church. Put them all together and Brad learns about Kate's fat and sexually-confused past; Kate learns Brad's real name.
And so they fight. But fighting makes them realise how much they love each other and what life and Christmas is all about.
Sentiment and sincerity start to gush - but along the way there are some cracking moments and plenty of genuine laughs. We're not witnessing the birth of a Christmas classic here, but watching it will bring Christmas an hour and a half nearer.
Phil Hewitt
