This Christmas

I can't believe how much of a chore it was to find this movie playing here in Des Moines.  It hasn't been out long enough to start leaving the major theaters.  Or maybe it never hit those movie houses in the first place.  When I did a search for it online, I kept getting the response that it wasn't even playing in the 50316 area code.  That meant it was already in the second-run theaters here that aren't listed online.

The Nova used to be a higher quality theater here when it was Carmike-owned.  I still remember when I lived in the apartments behind there that I used to walk over to it all the time to check out flicks.  That's wasn't even ten years ago, but it might as well have been a century ago with how much that place has fallen off now.

My entire movie experience was compromised due to to the environment in which I had to view it.  The popcorn tasted as though it had been out a while even though I witnessed it had just been popped.  The theater was nearly as cold as outside.  Did they forget to pay the heat bill?  Then I sat close to the screen as I usually (don't like to wear my glasses if in the movies if I don't have to) and I could STILL barely hear.  It wouldn't have killed them to turn the sound up a bit.

So "This Christmas" was already off to a bad start with me. The movie itself had an  awful lot to overcome to make up for what I had to endure just to view it.  As if that wasn't enough, it also had to contend with the fact that I was already coming in with prejudices about it.  It had a big hole to dig out of and it wasn't going to be an easy feat.  But it was a holiday film and I am just entering my four-day holiday break so I was feeling a bit festive.  At least it had that in its favor.

"This Christmas" is a story about the Whitfield's first holiday together in four years.  All of them had been so busy with their own nuclear family lives and/or careers that they had put off reuniting for Christmas.  As with any family, when you go that long without seeing each other, there are a lot of issues that have developed over that time.  This is the story of what happens when those issues surface at of course the most appropriate times.

What bothered me right from the beginning was the matriarch of the family.  Lorette Devine plays the mom who is doing what she can to try to keep a semblance of sanity around the house.  She doesn't do a bad job, even though the portrayal is a bit stereotypical at times.  However, they really should have came up with another nickname for her other than MaDere.  That's WAY to close to Madea and then it takes away any sense of identity the movie was otherwise trying to gain.

This was Chris Brown's only second movie.  With the very brief appearance he had in "Stomp the Yard", you might as well call this his first.  His character was a little too unrealistic to me.  I don't know any Black family where any of the children are allowed to curse at their mother.  Not without getting some corporal punishment administered.  That and it's apparent his acting does need a little more work still.  On the other hand, his singing is down right phenomenal.  His two performances may have very well been the highlights of the film.

There was one scene in particular I REALLY had a problem with.  Lisa (Regina King) has known that her husband had been cheating on her for while and was okay with it.  She tried to use the rationale that she didn't want to get back in the dating game.  No, that still wasn't the bad part.

Lisa decided to get revenge by waiting for Malcolm (Laz Alonso) to get back from his "business" trip.  As he was in the shower thinking he was getting ready to give him some, she spread baby oil all over the bathroom floor.  He got out slipping and sliding and she started whipping him with a leather belt, confessing that she knew about his affair.  All that just for cheating?!  I could see if he had been beating her, then he would have had that coming.  But getting treated like a slave like that was totally uncalled for.  I was wondering what it would have been like watching this movie in a theater full of women to see what their reaction would have been.  It just made cringe thinking of the slavery connotations.

I should have known from the onset there would be something wrong when I saw this was written and directed by Preston Whitfield.  This is the same man that brought us that jewel "Crossover".  It was probably asking a bit much asking him to tackle the chore of coming up with an original idea for a holiday film.  Then to end it with a ten minute scene of the stars doing a Soul Train line as themselves and not their characters was the icing on the cake.  "This Christmas" won't be topping anyone's list of favorite Christmas movies anytime soon.

My rating:  C