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Maybe there’s a group of people dedicated to Sarah Jessica Parker and at the same time hopelessly enraptured by the dysfunctional family at Christmastime theme that could possibly make this dog a hit. I’m harder to please. I actually look for (and encourage) originality, crisp writing, great characters and interesting and unexpected plot twists. This movie is lacking in all of those departments.

In fact the only thing I can say in defense of this film are that the actors are talented enough to have made a very professional although boring movie. If you haven’t seen almost every character, every conflict and every resolution before, you have missed a lot of movies – almost all of them better than this one.

Sarah Jessica Parker said in a recent interview that she didn’t take this role because she was trying to portray an anti-Carrie character to get away from being typecast into the type of roles she played on Sex In The City. She merely took the role because she thought the script was terrific and the chance to work with the other talented actors in the cast was something she couldn’t pass up.

She should have. In the company of other, more experienced film actors Parker comes across as over the top, too cloying, too fake and too easy to please at the end. She plays the role of Meredith Morton, the uptight fiancé of Dermot Mulroney brought home to meet his family for the Christmas family celebration. Instantly, actually before they even meet her, the entire family hates her which doesn’t make sense as the Stones are educated liberals full of compassion for the handicapped and underprivileged people in the world – just not uptight fiancés.

As for the rest of the family, you’ve seen them all before. Just once I wish someone would raise their hands at a pre-production meeting and say something like, “Uh, boss, my character’s the same one I played on such and such and the same one that was in such and such. Can’t we come up with something a little bit different for me to say or do or be in this film?” But no.

Apparently, the size of their paychecks is equal to the amount of guts it would take for one of them to actually say something like that to a successful producer, director or writer. They must think, well, maybe the lighting guy will save this turkey, or perhaps, maybe it will look better on film than it sounds right now. Wrong. This isn’t a horrible mistake of a movie, not with the talent in the cast and the high quality production values, its just that we’ve seen it all before, done better and it wasn’t all that great to begin with.

Trust me, in twenty or thirty years some new cast of great actors will not be pressing their agents to remake this movie. Once around the block with the Family Stone is more than enough.

Please let me know what you think of this movie by adding your comment below.