Come back, Ben Affleck, all is forgiven.
Affleck took a roasting for “Surviving Christmas,” his holiday turkey that opened before Halloween. Now comes “Christmas With the Kranks,” an even more painful slapstick comedy.
This film is based on a John Grisham book, a nonlegal novel called “Skipping Christmas.” It’s about Luther and Nora Krank, a suburban couple suffering from empty nest syndrome. They’re played by Tim Allen and Jamie Lee Curtis.
With their daughter gone to Peru for a Peace Corps mission, the Kranks face their first Christmas alone. Luther makes a radical suggestion: Forget the annual Christmas Eve party, forget the decorations, forget the expenditure of time and money. He and Nora will go on a Caribbean cruise this year instead.
It sounds easy, but the Kranks fail to reckon with the neighbors on their block, who treat Christmas spirit with the intensity of a cult. When the Kranks refuse to drink the Yuletide Kool-Aid, the neighbors declare war.
This would be a reasonably workable idea for a slapstick comedy, if it were handled with any aplomb. The director, Joe Roth, overstates everything, leaving no room for potentially funny situations to develop. Roth has run major studios such as Disney and Fox, and seems to be much better at that than directing.
And whatever black-comedy vibe the movie might have is inevitably upended by a switcheroo in the final act, when things change for the Kranks. (Every Christmas story is the story of Scrooge, it seems.) The film goes warm and huggy with a vengeance.
Dan Aykroyd plays the most obnoxious of the neighbors, a piece of casting that should be funnier than it is. Cheech Marin and Jake Busey play cops, and M. Emmet Walsh is the crotchety old-timer who must soften up before the movie ends.
Jamie Lee Curtis overdoes the hysterical mom bit, and Tim Allen looks depressed at getting stuck in yet another domestic comedy. A sequence in which he gets Botox injections to clear up facial wrinkles is much more creepy than funny.
The script, by “Home Alone” man Chris Columbus, seizes every opportunity to have someone fall off a roof or get drenched in water. He also freezes a cat, which revives later. Nobody ever actually gets hurt in a Chris Columbus film, because Santa Claus really exists.
At least “Surviving Christmas” had some legitimate humbug. “Christmas With the Kranks” is just a product to occupy holiday screens and sell videos next November, a lump of coal in the Christmas stocking.
“Christmas With the Kranks” H
Inept: Based on John Grisham’s “Skipping Christmas,” this slapstick comedy tells of Luther and Nora Krank (Tim Allen and Jamie Lee Curtis), who horrify their neighbors by deciding to go on a cruise and skip the Christmas trappings this year. An inept piece of product.
Rated: PG rating is for subject matter.
Now showing: Everett 9, Galaxy, Grand, Maryville, Mountlake, Stanwood, Metro, Oak Tree, Pacific Place, Woodinville, Cascade.
“Christmas With the Kranks” H
Inept: Based on John Grisham’s “Skipping Christmas,” this slapstick comedy tells of Luther and Nora Krank (Tim Allen and Jamie Lee Curtis), who horrify their neighbors by deciding to go on a cruise and skip the Christmas trappings this year. An inept piece of product.
Rated: PG rating is for subject matter.
Now showing: Everett 9, Galaxy, Grand, Maryville, Mountlake, Stanwood, Metro, Oak Tree, Pacific Place, Woodinville, Cascade.
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