When Meredith Morton accompanies her boyfriend Everett for a family Christmas back at his home she has nothing in common with them all and constantly makes a fool of herself with her uptight nature.
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Everett Stone plans on proposing to Meredith during the Christmas trip home wanting to get the family ring from his mother Sybil, who doesn't really agree on his choice. Although she is trying her very best and hardest Meredith cannot help but constantly put her foot in her mouth and comes across as a bigot towards situations which are not exactly the easiest to talk about.
She feels she needs backup so invites her sister Julie who she hopes will be able to help her out in many different ways. But that kinda backfires as well, the only person who seems to want to help and understand Meredith is Ben (Everett's brother) who seems to be a little bit of a lost cause and the black sheep of the family. Something that you don't really expect from a film set around Christmas is cancer and that is what you get with this one. I guess you have to think well why not, considering so many families have to deal with it all year round and the festive period could become even tougher to manage.
So the film really does have a mixture of all different genres with some very sad and serious moments, but then some truly laugh out loud moments. Maybe, just maybe that helps to sum up a family Christmas? Things going wrong, annoying each other, having a good laugh and sometimes a good cry but the important thing is that all of that happens together.
The strangest thing in this film though has to be towards the end with the possible romance and the couples swapping round a little bit. Just a bit too much in my opinion even if I can understand the reasoning behind this.
Considering the impressive cast I guess it is no real shock that this film does have a few good things going for it. Diane Keaton never disappoints and leads the family very well, although I don't think that you would actually want her as a mother in law in this role. Rachel McAdams, Claire Danes and Luke Wilson all in more supporting roles are impressive enough. Sarah Jessica Parker shows what would happen if you took Carrie Bradshaw from New York City and put her with a family, a similar character in a lot of ways and I guess that is something I have always enjoyed about this film being a big Sex and the City fan.
