The perfect Christmas movie uplifts and inspires, sometimes makes us laugh, often makes us cry, and always gives us the warm, fuzzy feeling of Christmas. “Deck the Halls” did absolutely none of those things for me.
Matthew Broderick plays Steve Finch, the town eye doctor and also the chairman of the Christmas Festival. The town has been getting ready for the holidays and so has Steve, with his obsessive-compulsive need to organize everything down to the last speck. His wife (Kristin Davis) tries to help him see that they don’t need to be so uptight about the schedule, but he’s determined to have a perfect Christmas.
Buddy Hall (Danny DeVito) and his family move in across the street, bringing a touch of worldliness to an otherwise preppy neighborhood. Tia (Kristen Chenoweth) is a former . . . shall we say, model, and we catch a glimpse of one of her pictures, as well as frequent glimpse of herself still . . . modeling in the low-cut sweaters she likes to wear. Buddy wants to make something of his life and be remembered for his contribution to the world, so he decides to light up his house so bright, it can be seen from space.
The lights shine into the Finch’s bedroom and keep Steve up at night, making him even grumpier than he already is. Top it all off with the fact that the people in the town are now calling Buddy the Christmas expert, and Steve has many bones to pick. A long series of practical jokes ensues, which might have been funny if not for the mean-spirited way in which they were played. Steve said several hurtful things to Buddy that went beyond just a neighborhood rivalry and were downright slaps in the face.
In the end, they made up and Steve helps Buddy with his goal of getting his house seen from space. And that is about the whole movie in a nutshell.
I didn’t appreciate Tia’s outfits, or, later in the movie, the way the daughters of both households chose to celebrate the season with their own naughty Santa outfits. The fighting was mean and the reconciliation, half-hearted. There was no spirit of Christmas to be found in this film. I’m going to stick with my own list of personal favorites for now and not worry about seeing this one again.
This film was rated PG.
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