SURVIVING CHRISTMAS
US, 2004, 91, Colour.
Ben Affleck, James Gandolfinni, Christina Applegate, Catherine O' Hara, Josh Zuckerman, Bill Macy, Jennifer Morrison, Udo Keir, David Selby, Stephanie Faracy, Stephen Root, Sy Richardson.
Directed by Mike Mitchell.
Released just before Christmas with the Kranks, this festive season comedy seems far, far superior to the Kranks. Although the Christmas mythology, ‘Christmas without Christ’, is always in evidence, there is one scene with a crib, so, at least, somebody remembered the event on which the celebration is based.
Ben Affleck is the star and 2003-2004 were the years to berate Affleck just for being on the screen. Yes, he is often wooden. Yes, he has accepted roles that made too many demands on him that he could not meet (he definitely could not have won Pearl Harbor), but roles like this suit him best and he does quite a reasonable job here. He is a poor little rich boy who has no one to celebrate Christmas with. He visits his family home, finds what he thinks is a nice family and suggests that he stay with them for Christmas (and sweetens the suggestion with an offer of $250,000 payment).
The comedy (strained at times) concerns his fitting in too well and not fitting in. James Gandolfini seems to be enjoying himself as the tough guy Dad as does Catherine O’ Hara as Mum. It is Christina Applegate as the acerbic daughter who starts to spoil the arrangement. You know how it is going to end – after all, it is a Christmas show. It is the puzzle of how they get there, along with some funny sequences, that provides the entertainment. A Christmas timepasser.
1. An American Christmas story? Satire? morality story? Possibilities of change?
2. An American variation on Charles Dickens A Christmas Carol? Trent as the opposite of Scrooge yet experiencing his loneliness? Tom and his family, family tensions, preoccupation with money?
3. The American city setting, at Christmas, the weather and the season? The musical score?
4. Christmas in the city, homes, decorations, the Christmas spirit?
5. Ben Affleck as Trent? His wealth, the planned holiday, his girlfriend, the breakup? His feeling lonely? Going to the old family home? The recommendation to cherish family memories? Finding the family, the decision to rent them for the Christmas? The contract?
6. Trent and his perspectives, his personality, psychology, relationships, the treatment, memories and hopes?
7. The family, their life, family relationships? Responding to Trent? To pretend? Tom, his manner, patriarch, the touch of Scrooge and money? The daughter and her absence, the personality, disliking Trent? The mother, her personality, support? The son, relationship with his parents, his reaction to Trent?
8. Interactions, the activities, the comic touches, conversations, meals, Trent’s drama and its text, the performances? Tom – and the touch of the
comeuppance, unmasked?
9. The resolution, touches of goodwill, change and hope?
