I have never been a big fan of Christmas comedies. To me, I put them a notch or two below slasher films. However, that’s not entirely the case with Almost Christmas although there are plenty of yuletide faults to be had.
Danny Glover stars as Walter Meyers, a widowed family patriarch living in Birmingham who’s trying to organize his yearly Christmas get-together with his family. His hope is for them to spend five days in his house without anything going wrong. Gabrielle Union and Kimberly Elise costars as his daughters and Romany Malco and Jessie Usher are his sons.
Oscar-winner Mo’Nique costars as the family aunt who concocts some strange Christmas delicacies and the family tries to play nice by reluctantly devouring her food, but in the end, they’d rather order pizza. Mo’Nique does earn some good comedic chops and she’s much funnier than anything Tyler Perry’s Madea could accomplish in an entire film.
Other plot elements involve Malco’s congressional campaign as well a love triangle of sorts between one of the married couples and a girl working as a cashier in a grocery store. Often times, it feels contrived and predictable, but it does end with a finale that earns big laughs.
I feel these performances deserve a better genre to be in. Glover and Mo’Nique are truly the only anchors here and while the other actors do what they can, the plot is dead in the water. Any attempts at comedy by the supporting cast usually fall flat and other times it’s knee-deep in fortune cookie philosophy about the ideas of family and togetherness that could’ve been borrowed a dozen other Christmas comedies.
Almost Christmas isn’t nearly the disaster that Love the Coopers was a year ago, but I don’t foresee anyone wanting to warrant repeat viewings of this around the holidays either.
Grade: C
(Rated PG-13 for suggestive material, drug content and language.)
