Kranky Kristmas
Following in the holiday footsteps of Jingle all the Way, Christmas with the Kranks celebrates the dysfunctional, materialistic American family, while pretending to be a heartfelt ode to the holiday.
Based on the novel Skipping Christmas by John Grisham, the movie details the efforts of Luther (Tim Allen) and Nora (Jamie Lee Curtis) Krank to skip Christmas and take a Caribbean cruise instead. The reason is highly plausible; the Kranks' daughter Blair (Julie Gonzalo) has left for a stint in the Peace Corps and the empty nesters are feeling a bit out of the holiday spirit until Luther convinces Nora to take a much needed cruise as a gift to themselves.
Their neighbors, particularly local Gauleiter Vic Frohmeyer (Dan Ackroyd), are less than supportive, waging a witless war—consisting mainly of harassing the Kranks—to coax the Kranks into taking part in street decorating rituals. After weathering this tempest in a teapot, the Kranks receive word that Blair will be returning in a matter of hours on Christmas Eve.
As much as Allen, Curtis, and the rest of the cast try, Christmas with the Kranks is DOA from the beginning. The screenplay by Chris Columbus is filled with inane physical comedy—Allen almost falls off his roof, Curtis struggles to purchase the last canned ham in town, and local constables Cheech Marin and Jake Busey apprehend a burglar on Christmas Eve. Mixed with these physical jokes is a serious subplot about an impending death. For a holiday movie, Christmas with the Kranks is pretty cheerless.
The maniacal neighbors, led by Ackroyd, make it feel more like a Christmas in the Third Reich than in suburban Chicago. Kranks offers a blind repetition of an empty custom, though it does have a nice climax. The Kranks are materialists in the worst sense, with all of the Christmas celebration tied to hickory honey hams, decorations, and Christmas cards, not a sense of cheer.
More fundamentally, there's no conflict. As any Midwesterner knows, whether somebody chooses to celebrate a holiday is their business, not the business of a prying community. Unless you buy the premise that the Kranks have a duty to celebrate Christmas, the entire movie won't work, especially when Blair announces she's coming home. Instead of telling their daughter the truth, these overly indulgent parents simply pander to their thoughtless, spoiled child.
Allen plays his typical Neanderthal with a heart of gold and Curtis is suitably perky, though a touch too Stepford for the role. The rest of the cast is good, with hapless policemen Marin and Busey as standouts. Those looking for holiday inspiration are better looking elsewhere.
Based on the novel Skipping Christmas by John Grisham, the movie details the efforts of Luther (Tim Allen) and Nora (Jamie Lee Curtis) Krank to skip Christmas and take a Caribbean cruise instead. The reason is highly plausible; the Kranks' daughter Blair (Julie Gonzalo) has left for a stint in the Peace Corps and the empty nesters are feeling a bit out of the holiday spirit until Luther convinces Nora to take a much needed cruise as a gift to themselves.
Their neighbors, particularly local Gauleiter Vic Frohmeyer (Dan Ackroyd), are less than supportive, waging a witless war—consisting mainly of harassing the Kranks—to coax the Kranks into taking part in street decorating rituals. After weathering this tempest in a teapot, the Kranks receive word that Blair will be returning in a matter of hours on Christmas Eve.
As much as Allen, Curtis, and the rest of the cast try, Christmas with the Kranks is DOA from the beginning. The screenplay by Chris Columbus is filled with inane physical comedy—Allen almost falls off his roof, Curtis struggles to purchase the last canned ham in town, and local constables Cheech Marin and Jake Busey apprehend a burglar on Christmas Eve. Mixed with these physical jokes is a serious subplot about an impending death. For a holiday movie, Christmas with the Kranks is pretty cheerless.
The maniacal neighbors, led by Ackroyd, make it feel more like a Christmas in the Third Reich than in suburban Chicago. Kranks offers a blind repetition of an empty custom, though it does have a nice climax. The Kranks are materialists in the worst sense, with all of the Christmas celebration tied to hickory honey hams, decorations, and Christmas cards, not a sense of cheer.
More fundamentally, there's no conflict. As any Midwesterner knows, whether somebody chooses to celebrate a holiday is their business, not the business of a prying community. Unless you buy the premise that the Kranks have a duty to celebrate Christmas, the entire movie won't work, especially when Blair announces she's coming home. Instead of telling their daughter the truth, these overly indulgent parents simply pander to their thoughtless, spoiled child.
Allen plays his typical Neanderthal with a heart of gold and Curtis is suitably perky, though a touch too Stepford for the role. The rest of the cast is good, with hapless policemen Marin and Busey as standouts. Those looking for holiday inspiration are better looking elsewhere.
