'Four Christmases' - No Surprises But Still Funny

You can't spell 'families' without 'lies'. That's the message behind "Four Christmases," in which a young couple must face the music after skipping out on the last three family holidays. The movie opens with Kate and Brad, played by Reese Witherspoon and Vince Vaughn, who are a disgustingly sweet couple.

I can feel the audiences' collective eyes rolling as Kate and Brad skip around San Francisco, kissing, giving each other foot rubs, taking dance classes and generally acting like the perfect married couple. But wait, they aren't married. They are one of those couples that dates for years and never plans on tying the knot. The only thing that saves me from having to use the popcorn bowl as a barf bag is the fact that all hell will break loose on their carefree asses any moment now.

And it does. Kate and Brad's trip to Fiji, disguised as an "inoculating infants in Burma" mission to their families, is postponed for 24 hours due to poor weather. A local newscaster stops the couple at the Fiji Airlines counter and asks for their reaction to the holiday travel disaster, exposing their lies to their families. Within a matter of moments, their BlackBerrys are buzzing like insects as they receive call after call from family members. Realizing there's no way out of it, the couple gives in and decides to satisfy their families by stuffing four Christmases into one day.

The couple with the perfect job, life and relationship suddenly has to face all of the old skeletons from their childhood. They start off united against the onslaught of their insane family members, but the secrets from their pasts start to tear them apart.

By the 20-minute mark, it's pretty obvious where the movie is going. At each house, Brad and Kate are going to learn a little more about each other. They're going to have a crisis of heart, get into a fight, but come together at the end, stronger than ever. It may be cliché, but there's a reason why Hollywood uses clichés . they work.

What really makes this movie stand out from all the other holiday movies coming out this year is the comedy. There are few actors in Hollywood who can improv an entire movie and manage to keep it funny. I'm talking about actors like Vince Vaughn and Will Ferrell, who can somehow just stand in front of the camera, talk and make everyone fall over laughing. The problem with these movies is that if the supporting cast can't keep up the movie falls flat. Just look at "Blades of Glory." When it comes down to it, the success of "Four Christmases" depends on Witherspoon's performance.

She's good - likeable, smart and funny. She can carry herself in a movie opposite Vaughn, which is hard to do, especially since females with Vaughn are cast usually as a straight-man. I expected walking in that she was going to play that role: a tightly-wound girlfriend who spends the majority of the film making a shocked face at whatever the funny guy does. She doesn't, thank goodness, and what really sealed the deal for a good performance from her was part where she body slams 6-year-olds in a moon bounce.

Even though the theme of the movie might be a little mushy, everyone can watch and identify with it. We've all been forced to suffer through family reunions. You know the kind where you realize after a few days that you'd rather poke your own eye out then play another board game. This movie taps into that familiar feeling, making it somehow possible to enjoy it (it's easier to watch someone else go through it).

There's only one strange part in the movie. It happens towards the end when Jon Voight shows up, playing the role of Kate's dad. Everyone might not know his personal history, but Voight is Angelina Jolie's estranged father and in "Four Christmases" he plays as a man trying to piece his family back together. For a moment, it's almost as if he stops acting when he talks about the mistakes he's made; it's strangely honest. This moment slows the momentum of the movie for a second, but it passes and everything picks back up.

Overall, the movie wasn't anything spectacular, but it wasn't disappointing or boring. The actors worked well together, not overshadowing each other or competing for camera time. The jokes were funny, though you probably won't be rolling around on the floor laughing. Still, you'll leave satisfied.Final Score: B