Review of Four Christmases
Other Families are Just as Disfunctional as Yours
Four Christmases is the new comedy for the holiday season. Brad and Kate played by Vince Vaughn and Reese Whiterspoon get caught lying to their families about why they have been missing family Christmases in the past years and are forced to visit all four of them this year. The happily unmarried couple must not only spend time with their crazy divorced families but also face their fear of getting married and becoming their parents.
Dysfunctional Families
The plot of the movie deals with a common dilemma. What happens when someone is coming from a divorced family and because of the first-hand experience of a broken family, the young man or women decides to avoid the mistakes of their parents and decides not to get married.
Brad and Kate look at their relationship the same way. They are both coming from divorced families and as a result, they have not two but four families to visit on Christmas Day. The movie begins with scenes from the couple’s happy unmarried life, from their trips to exotic places and their clear dislike of the holiday season and the obligations of the family functions.
Turning Point
The turning point in the movie is when after visiting their parents’ new families, Kate realizes that her firm decision on not wanting her own family is changing and she wants a family on her own one day. Brad reacts with denial. Brad's logic is undeniable. Why change the relationship to a more traditional closer union when it is working just as well as it did in the past years.
And yet just like in most relationships, Kate wants to move closer to marriage and potentially wants kids. In this situation men are usually forced to choose between two options: loose the girl or get into the game and have kids. Watching Four Christmases the viewer is led to believe that this movie will not end with the same message as every other romantic comedy does; namely not everyone should get married and have kids. However, for some reason, despite of the realistic and honest beginning, this movie will end just as other romantic comedies do.
Four Christmases is a good indication of how bad families are behind the curtain so it is not clear why the writers and directors decided to change the message and end the movie with the same old message of the only good way to live ones life is to start a family and get into the nightmare that all four Christmases demonstrated. Despite of the boring conclusion of the movie, Four Christmases serves one purposes very well. After seeing other dysfunctional families, the viewer walks away feeling better about his or her own family.
Reese Whiterspoon
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