Surviving Christmas (2004)

Considering I’m a Ben Affleck fan (for the most part), and that he’s aided here by the late, great James Galdolfini as well as Christmas movie royalty in Katherine O’Hara (Home Alone 1&2 [1990-1992]) it’s fair to say I thought there would be things to enjoy here. Affleck’s Drew leads an utterly empty existence despite his astonishing wealth, and is desperate not to spend the upcoming Christmas alone. He pays a family that now lives in his childhood home to host him for the Christmas holidays, and Galdolfini’s Tom and O’Hara’s Christine reluctantly agree. Things get more complicated when their daughter Alicia also returns home for the holidays, and seemingly cannot bear the obnoxious and at times baffling behaviour of Drew. Surviving Christmas is an utter chore at its best, and just downright dreadful at its worst. The set up is wretched to begin with, but the character of Drew is unbelievably irritatingly, insisting on calling Alicia and Tom Mum and Dad, which is just unreservedly creepy. Presumably the message by the end is that his character has learned how to behave properly and be more selfless, but by the time the thankfully short run time is up, you don’t care at all, or indeed believe in the relationships that have supposedly spawned. Gandolfini provides some sort of anchor to reality, but O’Hara is wasted in a character that is at times downright bizarre. Affleck is terrible as a character that is admittedly a rotten person, but Affleck somehow makes the whole things ten times worse. 1.9/10