My search for Christmas movies in November and December brought me
mostly movies containing "Christmas" in the title, since, as far as I
know, Netflix does not have a search function that brings up all movies
on a particular subject. When I typed in "Christmas," This Christmas
is one of the first films that came up. This 2007 movie written and
directed by Preston A. Whitmore II is about a raucous family whose
members convene for the holidays and find thy have all sorts of issues
to work through.
Everything centers around Ma'Dere, the family
matriarch played by Loretta Devine. I've seen her in several comical
roles before and found her quite funny; here, she uses her comedic gifts
but also has the opportunity to get serious. She runs a dry cleaning
establishment and takes pride in being able to distribute the modest
profits among her children, but not all of them are so sure that it's
worth it for her to keep the family business running.
Lisa
(Regina King), the eldest daughter, is convinced the time has come to
sell, in part due to the urging of her husband Malcolm (Laz Alonso).
However, she has been rather disconnected from the family, and her
siblings, particularly her sister Melanie (Lauren London), distrust her
motives. Model Kelli (Sharon Leal) finds herself preoccupied with a
young man who used to admire her from afar when they were in school
together.
The men of the family have other things on their
minds. Quentin (Idris Elba), who's been gone for years, is worried about
repaying a debt he owes to some dangerous people. Claude (Columbus
Short) has been away in the army and never mentioned to anybody that he
picked up a wife while he was there. Michael (Chris Brown) is the
baby-faced youngster of the family, a high school student afraid to
reveal to his mother his passion for singing, since his father left
years ago to pursue his dreams of being a musician and his mother has
equated music with abandonment ever since. Still, there's a new man in
her life now, the upright Joe Black (Delroy Lindo), so this may be the
perfect time to let bygones be bygones.
With so many siblings
(and their significant others) to keep track of, this movie is sometimes
rather hard to follow; I found myself mixing up the back stories of
various characters, especially Lisa and Mel and Quentin and Claude. By
the end of the movie, though, I had them pretty well straightened out. I
think the film could have done with a bit of editing; it dragged for
me, especially toward the beginning. I also found a few scenes
uncomfortable, especially a couple involving retribution for a marital
indiscretion.
On the other hand, I loved the character of Joe,
who not only is a caring boyfriend but truly goes out of his way to
help the children of his ladylove, even (and maybe especially) the
antagonistic Quentin. I also found the storyline of Michael revealing
his talent to his mother touching, and I felt the songs that showcased
his talent fit right into the film instead of feeling superfluous, as
sometimes happens when a pop star doubles as an actor. While it's not a
movie I'd go out of my way to watch again, This Christmas is a nice tale of an extremely fractured family coming together and letting Christmas work its magic upon them.
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