Film Snail

Surviving Christmas
Surviving Christmas

5.7

Surviving Christmas

PG-13·2004·91m

Summary

A wealthy executive, Drew Latham (Ben Affleck) has no close relationships and becomes nostalgic for his childhood home as Christmas approaches. When he visits the house and finds another family living there, he offers the residents, Tom Valco (James Gandolfini) and his wife, Christine (Catherine O'Hara), a large sum of money to pretend they are his parents. Soon Drew tests the couple's patience, and, when their daughter, Alicia (Christina Applegate), arrives, things get increasingly tense.

Crew

Director

Mike Mitchell

Screenplay

Deborah Kaplan

Screenplay

Harry Elfont

Screenplay

Jennifer Ventimilia

Screenplay

Joshua Sternin

Reviews

r96sk

r96sk

December 10, 2022

6

The star cast elevate this a lot.

Ben Affleck, James Gandolfini, Christina Applegate and Catherine O'Hara are, honestly, the only reasons this was watchable, for me personally at least. If it was a film with a lesser known cast, I wouldn't have any positives for it.

For a festive flick, it's a little too mean-spirited. Of course that's the way these films usually go so the eventual pay-off can occur, though with this it's a bit too the other way and the aforementioned pay-off isn't all that pleasant. You gotta make the characters way more likeable if you're only gonna redeem them a tiny bit.

<em>'Surviving Christmas'</em> is at least only a relatively short film at around 90 minutes and there are a couple (if not enough) amusing moments. There's also a surprisingly topical commentary on unintentionally consenting your likeness away via photos - I'm looking at you, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2022/dec/09/what-does-the-lensa-ai-app-do-with-my-selfies-self-portrait-photos-magic-avatar-generator-gone-viral" rel="nofollow">latest Instagram trend</a>.

Media

Status:

Released

Original Language:

English

Budget:

$45,000,000.00

Revenue:

$14,793,624.00

Keywords

holiday
romantic comedy
christmas