Christmas With The Kranks film review

certificate_PG

CHRISTMAS WITH THE KRANKS

Christmas With The Kranks comes to the screen with what would appear an impeccable pedigree: a script by Christopher Columbus based on a book by John Grisham, direction by Joe Roth and a strong cast that includes Jamie Lee Curtis, Dan Akyroyd and Tim Allen, without whom no Christmas at the movies would be seemingly complete. But alas the whole is not equal to the sum of its parts. Christmas With The Kranks is an undercooked turkey. And the laughs are like roast potatoes: there's not enough.

It's easy to see why there was so much interest in translating Grisham's novel Skipping Christmas from the page to the screen. The story about a couple who decide to forgo the festivities when their only daughter leaves home, preferring to take a cruise instead, only to hastily put their Christmas plans back together when the daughter returns home at the last minute, has potential. But the leaden script and even more wearied direction sap it of any life.

Allen does his best but his comic gifts are all too rarely called upon and for the bulk of the film, it's as much as he and Jamie Lee Curtis can do to try and not look uncomfortable as they contend with the witless and cumbersome material. Allen and Curtis play Luther and Nora Krank whose daughter Blair (Julie Gonzalo) is spending her first Christmas away from their Chicago home. After Luther calculates the cost of the annual celebrations - more than $6,000 the previous year - he suggests he and Nora skip Christmas and go on holiday.

This wouldn't normally be a problem, but in their close-knit community Christmas is a big deal, particularly on Hemlock Street which prides itself on its extravagant displays. When local busybody Vic Frohmeyer (Dan Akyroyd) discovers the Kranks' plans to boycott Christmas, he rallies the neighbours to turn against them.

As flat as the humour is the look of the film which diminishes the magical spectacle of Christmas to a drab grey sludge. What gags there are are of the far fetched variety, most notably a scene with Luther following botox treatment. CWTK also includes that staple of Christmas movies, overt sentimentality. The maudlin moment involving a sick neighbour and Luther's epiphany about the true meaning of Christmas is a forlorn effort to inject the film with some heart, but by that time Christmas With The Kranks is already flatlining.