Cast: Tim Allen, Jamie Lee Curtis, Dan Aykroyd, M. Emmet Walsh, Elizabeth Franz, Erik Per Sullivan, Cheech Marin, Jake Busey, Julie Gonzalo
Director: Joe Roth
Producers: Chris Columbus, Michael Barnathan, Mark Radcliffe
Screenplay: Chris Columbus, based on Skipping Christmas by John Grisham
Cinematography: Don Burgess
Music: John Debney
U.S. Distributor: Columbia Pictures
It's not easy to make a good Christmas movie. Memorable, lasting examples are more rare than flying reindeer, and, just because Chris Columbus was once involved in one (Home Alone), doesn't guarantee a repeat success. 2004 has seen two failures in the Christmas movie department, and the nicest thing that can be said about Christmas with the Kranks is that at least it's better than Surviving Christmas. Talk about a backhanded compliment…
There's an interesting premise at work here, so the film's failure rests with its execution. The fault lies with both Columbus' script and Joe Roth's direction. Instead of an amusing tale of holiday excess and community pressure, we are served up a motion picture that plays like a cobbled-together series of sit-com outtakes. And, as with average TV fare, moments of genuine humor are rare, and character development can best be described as perfunctory. There's no one in this movie worth caring about, and the film's most energetic attempts at humor are pratfalls recycled from Home Alone. What was funny in 1990 doesn't have quite the same impact in 2004.
The John Grisham novel that inspired the movie (the best-selling Skipping Christmas) is recognizable, although it has been thoroughly Columbus-ized, and works as a vehicle for Tim Allen, who hasn't had much success since departing ABC's "Home Improvement." Allen, who fits comfortably into the "everyman" role, has only had one big screen success to balance the scales against a number of misses. With The Santa Clause as his sole motion picture bright light (not counting his voice work as Buzz Lightyear), he probably figured that his best chance for a comeback was in another holiday feature.
Allen and Jamie Lee Curtis play Luther and Nora Krank, two middle-aged Chicago suburbanites who are about to suffer from Empty Nest Syndrome. Their grown daughter, Blair (Julie Gonzalo), has joined the Peace Corps and is off to spend a year in South America. For the first time in more than two decades, Luther and Nora will be alone for Christmas. For Nora, it's a depressing realization, but Luther is already planning. If he and Nora skip Christmas, they can save enough money to go on a cruise. So he and Nora resolve not to have anything to do with decorations, lights, or parties - much to the dismay of their neighbors, who are Christmas-happy. Self-appointed block leader Vic Frohmeyer (Dan Aykroyd) is especially disappointed. Every house on the street is lit up like a jewel except the Kranks'. One woman even wonders if they're Jewish. Then something occurs to shake Luther and Nora's resolve - Blair announces that she's coming home for Christmas, and bringing her new fiancé. Suddenly, the Kranks have less than 24 hours to reverse gears.
Christmas with the Kranks could have been a satirical indictment of the consumerism and commercialism of the holiday. It could have been a jab at the pressure that communities exert on non-conformists. Or it could have been an old-fashioned, laugh-out-loud string of mishaps (not unlike National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation). But it's not any of these things. There's not enough edge for the satirical elements to work, the cloying melodrama interferes with the feeble attempts at humor (tough to laugh when a sub-plot features a neighbor with terminal cancer), and the filmmakers appear unwilling to invoke Murphy's Law. What we end up with is another Christmas film that cribs from A Christmas Carol. This time, Tim Allen plays Scrooge, and, while there are no ghosts per say (unless you count the giant Frosty the Snowman), Scrooge (a.k.a. Krank) eventually gives up his penny-pinching ways and learns the true meaning of Christmas.
Christmas with the Kranks is destined for endless seasonal reruns on some cable channel, where it will be bookended by titles like the remake of A Miracle on 34th Street and The Santa Clause 2. The placement is appropriate. Christmas with the Kranks is not an abomination, although it is uninspired and insipid. As such, it's perfect television fare. That way, once you've had your fill of spending time with this family, you can turn the channel and watch the Yule Log burn for a while.
© 2004 James Berardinelli