This Christmas
what are we serving up this holiday season?
2007-11-21
By Sergio Mims

CAST: Delroy Lindo, Keith Robinson, Idris Elba, Columbus Short, Loretta Devine, Lauren London, Chris Brown, Sharon Leal, Mekhi Phifer, Laz Alonzo, Regina King

WRITTEN AND DIRECTED BY:
Preston Whitmore II

**  TWO STARS

There’s good news and bad news about writer and director Preston Whitmore II’s black family holiday film, This Christmas. The good news is that it’s not as godawful as one of Tyler Perry’s films. The bad news is that, in spite of that, it still isn’t very good. Clearly following the template of the family friendly, feel-good films of Perry, but blatantly inspired by writer and director George Tillman’s far superior 1997 film, Soul Food, This Christmas is unfortunately overloaded with worn out clichés, clumsy plot contrivances, broadly drawn characters, flat sit-com-like pacing, and a heavy handed, bluntly obvious soundtrackdesigned to telegraph what emotions we should be feeling in case we miss the point.

The film centers around the Christmas holiday of the solidly middle class Whitfield family of San Francisco who are getting together for the first time in four years. Of course, everyone has their own issues. There’s the mother (Devine), who, though she is living with a man who loves her (Lindo), still pines for her no-account musician husband who deserted her years ago, her youngest son (Brown) who desires a career that he knows will meet with mom’s disapproval, and two daughters, one a successful actress /model (Leal) and the other a stay-at-home mom (King) married to a philandering husband (Alonzo). The two are at each other’s throats. Add to that the sexy, younger college student sister (London) towing along her awkward boyfriend (Robinson), the Marine (Short) who has a couple of secrets of his own and, finally, Devine’s wayward musician brother (Elba) on the lam from some thugs that he owes money to.

In perfunctory fashion, secrets are revealed and dilemmas rear their ugly heads threatening to tear the family apart. But crisis’ are eventually averted and new loves found before we are treated to the final overly-long dance sequence of the family doing the Soul Train line.

Despite all the good cheer and well meaning themes of strength through family ties, This Christmas sinks under it’s aggressive use of clichés and predictability. There isn’t a single character or story idea that we haven’t seen before or can’t figure out how it’s going to play out long before it does on the screen. When the cheating husband is discovered by his wife we know that there’s going to be some scene where he gets his just desserts  in some humorless, embarrassing, over the top way. We just know when we see two women with flowing, very expensive hair weaves, arguing on the front porch during a rainstorm that they’re going to wind up fighting and rolling around in rain (since we know that all black people are inherently violent and incapable of controlling their emotions), and that the scene will end with someone screaming about their hair as the punch line.

No doubt there will be those who feel that This Christmas is due for praise since it’s a “positive” black film about a strong black family without any of that nasty rap music, cussin’, sex and violence.  And, for those reasons, it may satisfy those undemanding members of the audience who just want a good, pleasant time at the movies. But, for those who are looking for something more substantial or original there’s very little meat on this bone.

Film critic, lecturer and festival consultant Sergio Mims covers all things film from the city that works, Chicago. He is a regular contributor to ebonyjet.com