Surviving Christmas (2004)
A lonely, obnoxious young millionaire pays a family to spend Christmas with him.
- Mike Mitchell
- Deborah Kaplan
- Harry Elfont
- Joshua Sternin
- Jennifer Ventimilia
Rating: 5.7/10 by 528 users
Alternative Title:
Jingle Bells - Eine Familie zum Fest. - DE
Sobreviviendo a la Navidad - SV
Country:
United States of America
Language:
English
Runtime: 01 hour 31 minutes
Budget: $45,000,000
Revenue: $14,793,624
Plot Keyword: holiday, romantic comedy, christmas
The star cast elevate this a lot. Ben Affleck, James Gandolfini, Christina Applegate and Catherine O'Hara are, honestly, the only reasons this was watchable, for me personally at least. If it was a film with a lesser known cast, I wouldn't have any positives for it. For a festive flick, it's a little too mean-spirited. Of course that's the way these films usually go so the eventual pay-off can occur, though with this it's a bit too the other way and the aforementioned pay-off isn't all that pleasant. You gotta make the characters way more likeable if you're only gonna redeem them a tiny bit. 'Surviving Christmas' is at least only a relatively short film at around 90 minutes and there are a couple (if not enough) amusing moments. There's also a surprisingly topical commentary on unintentionally consenting your likeness away via photos - I'm looking at you, latest Instagram trend.
