* HOLLYWOOD HOLIDAYS
At The Today Show’s annual Halloween costume contest this year, first prize went to a kid dressed up as Ralphie Parker, the boy who got his tongue stuck to the flagpole in A Christmas Story. That somebody thought of making such an obscure costume, and that people nevertheless instantly recognized it, affirms that A Christmas Story has aged enough and been aired so often that it has become one of the holiday classics, like the original Miracle on 34th Street.
Seasonal TV reruns get the credit, or the blame, for renewing interest in both It’s a Wonderful Life and A Christmas Story after both had sunk into obscurity following their initial releases.
It’s difficult to predict why some Christmas movies take hold and some don’t. (Albert Finney’s musical Scrooge doesn’t get the credit it deserves.) But some of the new holiday movies, particularly Deck the Halls and The Nativity Story, offer some tips for what not to do.
IGNORE THE REAL WORLD. Peel back the garish narrative gift-wrap that smothers Deck the Halls and you’ll find a viable premise: Small-town salesman Buddy Hall (Danny DeVito) wants to put so many Christmas lights on his house that it can be seen from space. The notion speaks to a nearly universal tradition of holiday-home decorating, and it’s clearly a snowballing trend in present-day America.
Instead of starting quietly and focusing on how such a scheme could bring a community together, Deck the Halls focuses on an escalating, slapstick feud between Buddy and his anal-retentive neighbor (Matthew Broderick). The shtick involves a speed-skating grudge match, spitting camels and a calamitous sleigh ride—you know, the kinds of things that happen to everybody. The film’s image of small-town life looks and feels just like a department-store display village—and that’s even before the lights start going up.
ASSUME THAT ALL YOU NEED IS A FAMILIAR PLOT. Though it begins with good intentions, offering a respectful account of the events leading up to Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem, The Nativity Story is uncomfortably like a pro-Jewish prequel to The Passion of the Christ. It unfolds like a cross between a stodgy Bible epic and a portentous prologue to one of the Omen movies, with lines like, “The prophesy will end tonight, father. The sons of Bethlehem shall be no more.” Director Catherine Hardwicke (Lords of Dogtown) took on an impossible task as she tries to tell one of history’s most widely known stories from a fresh perspective without offending anyone. The result is solemn and lead-footed, despite the shrewd casting of The Whale Rider’s Keisha Castle-Hughes, who brings gravitas and humanity to Mary.
RUIN SOMEBODY ELSE’S GOOD IDEA. Tim Allen’s original The Santa Clause serves up a perfect example of modest but satisfying Hollywood entertainment, with the amusing notion of an average guy drafted to be the real, magical Santa Claus for the rest of his life. The studios have wrung every last drop of charm from the premise with two sequels, including The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause, both of which have the side effect of making the first movie seem worse retroactively. At least straight-up remakes cause less long-term damage, with Jim Carrey’s The Grinch and Richard Attenborough’s Miracle on 34th Street failing to overshadow the originals—yet.
RAM CHRISTMAS DOWN YOUR AUDIENCE’S THROAT. Forget the fact that the first hour of the best Christmas movie off all time, It’s a Wonderful Life, barely even mentions Christmas. Instead, make sure that the audience has no chance to forget they’re watching a holiday movie.
Deck the Halls opens with sleigh bells and The Nativity Story with a grim version of “O Come, O Come Emmanuel.” The Nativity Story spends so much time paving the way for Jesus’ arrival that it misplaces the story’s central element. The most satisfying moments involve the comedic bickering of the three wise men, and Mary and Joseph admitting to being scared by the prospect of raising the son of God.
The film’s last 20 minutes resemble the most painstaking live nativity re-enactment you can imagine: There’s the star, there are the shepherds, there are the wise men, etc.
GO INDISCRIMINATELY NEGATIVE. Everyone dreads the consumerism and strained family dynamics of the holidays, which is why satirical anti-Christmas movies provide such a popular catharsis. Deck the Halls strives to be no more than this year’s National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation. The title even contains a nasty pun: DeVito’s family is named the Halls. Deck the Halls. Get it?
But if you’re going to mock the holidays and then turn around to endorse them at the end, you’re going to need credible characters and believable relationships, like the bumptious but affectionate family in A Christmas Story. At the screening of Deck the Halls, people laughed openly at the sentimental conclusion.
MAKE A BAD MOVIE. Poorly shot, badly acted and clumsily written, Deck the Halls fails in so many ways you feel sorry for Kristin Chenoweth, who gives a fresh and funny performance as DeVito’s sexpot wife. The Nativity Story never sustains narrative momentum but at least gets a little credit for trying to show the social pressures and conditions surrounding the “first” Christmas.
Simply making good movies will pay off better in the long run over trying to create a holiday tradition. My best-loved yuletide movies only incidentally involve Christmas, such as Die Hard and The Lion in Winter. Any classic film can only help at the holidays.