It’s pretty easy to write off “Surviving Christmas” as another bland cookie-cutter romantic comedy — nevermind the puzzling timing of releasing a Christmas movie a week before Halloween.
That alone is somewhat off-putting, for those who like their seasonal observances tidily contained within a single month. The only film that’s been successful with that marketing scheme was “The Nightmare Before Christmas,” and only because it so inventively meshed the mythology and magic of the two holidays.
But I digress. Ben Affleck plays Drew Latham, a shallow Chicago advertising executive who is unceremoniously dumped by his girlfriend, Missy Vangilder (Jennifer Morrison), after inviting her to Fiji for Christmas. What kind of person doesn’t spend Christmas with their family, the equally vapid Missy wonders? Drew just doesn’t “get” Christmas — you don’t go to Fiji, you go home for the holidays.
Drew, however, doesn’t seem to have any family, and in a final desperate bid to salvage his lonely Christmas, gets some advice from Missy’s therapist (Stephen Root, in a frantic cameo). If he goes back to a place that conjures happy memories, writes down his list of grievances with his loved ones, and sets the paper on fire, he will metaphorically let go of his aversion to holiday cheer.
Drew does just that, returning to his childhood home in the suburbs of Illinois. That’s when things get a little more interesting. After an unfortunate confrontation with the home’s current owner, Tom Valco (James Gandolfini), Drew has an epiphany: surely the Valcos will take him in for Christmas.
His instant family isn’t so thrilled about this until Drew offers them an obscene amount of money to go along with his farce. Soon, Drew is ensconced with dad Tom, mom Christine (Catherine O’Hara) and brother Brian (Josh Zuckerman). That’s all well and good, except that the Valcos are far from the ideal family Drew is hoping for. Exceptionally dysfunctional, the scene is complicated by the arrival of daughter Alicia (Christina Applegate), who thinks Drew is an idiot.
What saves “Surviving Christmas” from being a run-of-the-mill holiday film are its unconventional casting choices. Instead of subjecting the audience to a typically strained performance, Affleck takes a cue from his roles in Kevin Smith films like “Dogma” to turn the pompous ass persona up a notch. There’s Gandolfini as Tom, sporting a Grizzly Adams beard and a bear of an attitude. O’Hara and Applegate are the proper foils to their male counterparts with their no-nonsense, give-as-good-as-you-get deliveries.
While the ending is no surprise, isn’t that really what we want in a Christmas movie? It’s not “It’s A Wonderful Life” — Affleck is by no stretch of the imagination Jimmy Stewart. “Surviving Christmas” is more along the lines of Jody Foster’s 1995 “Home for the Holidays,” entertaining because it’s so easy to identify with the collective baggage that comes with that annual pilgrimage to the family homestead. It’s funny and sad, its characters flawed and conflicted — predictable, just like the dynamic at your own family’s holiday gathering.
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