|
|
|
Last Updated: May 30th, 2008 - 11:49:13 |
In the movie “The Perfect Holiday,” there is a rare moment of insight when a vain, obnoxious rapper, J-Jizzy (Charlie Murphy), is told by his record producer that his album-in-progress has “no heart.”
Sadly, the same can be said for this well-intentioned but cookie-cutter Christmas movie, which almost lulls us to sleep with clichés. Even the very likeable and photogenic Gabrielle Union and Morris Chestnut can only raise it to the level of pleasing eye-candy.
So let’s start first with that good eye candy: It is always a bonus to see Black romance on the screen and, in a few scenes, Union and Chestnut light it up with their perfect skin, mesmerizing eyes and dazzling smiles. If you grew up like I did, seeing few scenes like this with a chocolate girl as trophy, then the romantic in you will sit in front of the screen with wide eyes and a silly grin. (But you can only grin for so long. This is not a music video. There are two hours to fill!)
The filler comes in the way of a story about a gorgeous divorced mother named Nancy (Union), who is aching for attention and love in her life. Sadly, the script does not allow Nancy a life, an inner life or identity outside the realm of her three children. We never really connect with who Nancy is. She is either running after her children, half running after a man or stuck in an episode of “Girlfriends,” with her two buddies, played by actual TV actresses Jill Marie Jones and Rachel True. Her other activity is being perpetually pissed off by her ex-husband--the aforementioned vain, obnoxious rapper.
As for Morris, he is trapped in the role of Benjamin, an aspiring songwriter who is working part-time as a mall Santa Claus. Work is where he happens to see and immediately fall in love with Nancy. After Nancy’s youngest child, Emily, asks Santa to grant her one wish—of a man paying her mother a compliment—Benjamin is drawn into Nancy’s life. After that moment of love at first sight (rendered in slow motion, I might add), poor Benjamin is also trapped in a tired plot—you know the one, where a man thinks, for some reason, that he can lie and that his lies will never catch up to him. In the meantime, we viewers squirm in our seats, waiting for the eventual collision of lies with truth.
The child actors, most especially Khail Bryant as Emily, are entertaining but even they can’t escape the claws of cliché that make the oldest child, John-John, into a typical ill-mannered brat who cannot accept his parent’s break-up. Speaking of children, the saving grace of “The Perfect Holiday” could be that is a relatively harmless movie for children, who might identify with the emotions and actions of children of divorce.
If you’re wondering why I haven’t mentioned Queen Latifah or Terrence Howard, it’s because they really aren’t in the story, per se. The queen functions as a sort of magical narrator and Howard plays assorted roles as the queen’s sidekick. Very strange.
Even a bland film like “The Perfect Holiday” could have been saved by humor. Comedian Faizon Love tries but the script and any improvisation falls flat.
Sorry. “The Perfect Holiday” is not so perfect after all.
This review also appeared on Tom Joyner's BlackAmericaWeb.com.
You can order Esther Iverem's critically praised We Gotta Have It: Twenty Years of Seeing Black at the Movies, 1986-2006 (Thunder’s Mouth Press, April 2007)at Amazon.com or purchase at your favorite bookstore. It makes a wonderful gift! Thanks!
Read and search hundreds of reviews on SeeingBlack.com's Movies/TV channel and archive.
© Copyright 2006 SeeingBlack.com
Top of Page
|
|
|
|
