Surviving Christmas Not as Difficult as Suspected

The night my brother Nathan came home for Christmas break, Surviving Christmas was on TV. I suggested we watch it; he countered with "Ben Affleck!" And as the "guest," he won the argument, but I slipped the much-maligned flick into my Netflix queue anyway, and Mom and I watched it when he wasn't looking. And you know, I actually enjoyed it.

Affleck stars as Drew Latham, a hot-shot young ad exec whose girlfriend Missy (Jennifer Morrison) recoils when he suggests they flee to Fiji for Christmas. Her disdainful response to his apparent fear of family togetherness leads him to seek out the advice of her shrink, who implants the idea of going to his childhood home, writing a list of grievances and burning it in a gesture of forgiveness. Drew likes the idea, and he's tickled to go back home and clean his slate, but complications arise when Tom Valco (James Gandolfini), current head of the household, sees him loitering outside and knocks him out with a shovel. Yes, this family is just bursting with the Christmas spirit.

Despite the chilly reception, after being brought inside, Drew desperately wants to stay in his childhood home for Christmas. And while Tom thinks the visitor is a lunatic, he is willing to put up with him for a few days for a tidy sum of $250,000. Sounds good to me! Along with gruff, cranky but lovable Tom, we meet his burnt-out wife Christine (Catherine O'Hara), surly teenage son Brian (Josh Zuckerman) and, a little later, snarky daughter Alicia (Christina Applegate), home for the holidays. Throw in a local actor as Doo-Dah (Bill Macy), Drew's grandpa, and they've got a full house. Especially when Missy, in the mood for reconciliation, shows up with her parents for Christmas Eve dinner.

With its PG-13 rating, Surviving Christmas is occasionally crude but generally tamer than I expected. While Drew is considerably more obnoxious than Buddy, the endearing protagonist in Elf, he has a similarly youthful outlook on the world, and he goes about most of the movie with a goofy grin on his face. For the most part, I found him sympathetic. House's Morrison looks elegant as high-class Missy, but there's something very phony about her performance. In fact, I found all of the women in the movie rather grating, especially O'Hara, who got on my nerves in the Home Alone movies as well. I don't know if it's Applegate or Alicia who's trying too hard to be aggressive, but I think she overdoes it a bit, especially in the scene after Drew makes a grand gesture in an attempt to win her over.

Gandolfini, on the other hand, is delightful and makes Tom easily my favorite character in the film. He's grouchy and grinchy, but he clearly cares for his family, and when he smiles, he's radiant. Both intimidating and charming, he is both lovable and hilarious. I also got a chuckle out of both the original Doo-Dah and his replacement (Sy Richardson of Pushing Daisies) and Missy's henpecked dad, Horace (David Selby).

I love the look of the movie, with its excessive explosion of Christmas cheer that starts with the opening sequence, which shows December in all its festive and frustrating glory while It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year plays in the background. There are plenty of other Christmas songs on the soundtrack, and Affleck and Gandolfini get a nifty little duet on O Christmas Tree. All the traditional secular elements of Christmas pop up, from Christmas cookies and gifts in shiny paper to a garishly bright Christmas tree and a community theatre performance of A Christmas Carol. There's even a hint or two of the sacred, as when Drew insists they all join hands and say grace before dinner.

On the down side, there are, as Missy's uppity mother (Stephanie Faracy) puts it, "various incestuous overtones," and though we know they're not legitimate because those making advances on each other are not actually related, it still feels a tad uncomfortable at times. And I really could have done without all of Brian's smutty web-surfing. The direction of the plot couldn't be more obvious; we know Drew and the Valcos are going to wind up one big happy family by the end and that although he and Alicia initially loathe each other, they'll soon be locking lips. It's just the way these things go. And there are aspects of the story that don't make a lot of sense, like when Drew admits he was raised by a single mother who had to work double shifts at the diner to make ends meet. The Valcos' house may not be a mansion, but it looks way too rich for a struggling waitress's blood.

Still, I liked it. It's certainly not one of those Christmas classics that must be watched year after year, but most of the time it made me smile. Keep your expectations modest, and you should have no problem surviving Surviving Christmas.

House's Foundation Begins to Crumble

I'm turning into a real couch potato. With the exception of Friday - and even Friday has something to tempt me with Ghost Whisperer - I'm glued to the TV every night of the week. Heroes on Monday. Ugly Betty on Thursday - while we tape Smallville at the same time. American Idol and, more importantly, LOST on Wednesday. And American Idol and House on Tuesday. Both of these shows have begun to lose their luster for me, but I continue to watch them faithfully, partly because it's an excuse for my friend Libbie and me to get together. House really fell into a stellar deal by ending up just after American Idol in the lineup. I'd never heard of it until the spring of its first season, when Idol came along behind it to massively boost viewership. Would it have made it otherwise? I have major doubts.

I keep watching House mainly because of the main character. Hugh Laurie makes a fantastically cantankerous curmudgeon, and we are extra alert whenever he is on screen, which is most of the time. Like Simon Cowell, House is a master maligner, flinging colorful insults at everyone he meets and scarcely letting a remark go by without a snappy sarcastic comeback. He's marvelously entertaining. Yet by the second season, I had rather hoped to be watching the show for more than just the weekly barrage of one-liners. There are a few story arcs and a bit of character development, but for the most part, the show is just as episodic and formulaic as before. In every episode, somebody shows up with some mysterious ailment, and after one or several incorrect diagnoses, House and his team hit upon the answer at the last minute, almost invariably leading to a full recovery.

While House remains by far the most commanding presence, with his arresting blue eyes and his barking voice with no trace of Laurie's British accent, all the other major players from season one return and add interest. I like the evolution of Dr. Chase (Jesse Spencer) the best. An arrogant young Australian, he's a real pain throughout much of the first season, but in season two he begins to soften up, becoming more of a decent guy and not stabbing people in the back as he did in the past. Dr. Foreman (Omar Epps), like House and Chase, has issues with his father, and we get some emotional scenes of them together toward the end of the season. I'm not sure what to think of his character; he's ambitious and aloof, and his attitude near the conclusion of the season really grates on me, and I think it has something to do with the unpleasant way in which Dr. Cameron (Jennifer Morrison) begins to change.

Back in season one, she was unassuming, quiet and gentle. In the second season, she begins her descent into the barely likable character we see in season three, by which she and Chase seem to have swapped dispositions. She becomes hard-edged, always fiercely looking out for herself and increasingly locking heads with the others. She also seems to pick up a major dose of hormones along the way - or maybe it's all pent-up frustration for the fact that she and House can't make a relationship work. Bad things do happen to her in season two. She gives up what little hope she may have harbored about winning House's affection when his old girlfriend Stacy (Sela Ward) pops up and starts working at the hospital. Foreman essentially steals a paper she wrote and then, rather than apologizing for it, informs her that they are merely colleagues and will never be friends. Oh, and she almost winds up with AIDS. So it's a bad year for her, but I still hate to see her turn away from the sweetness of the first season.

House's boss, Dr. Cuddy (Lisa Edelstein), continues to rage against House for his defiant indiscretions, even as she defends his behavior as a necessary evil in the interest of helping hopeless cases. Easy-going Dr. Wilson (Robert Sean Leonard) is my favorite of the side-liners, and the second season has some fun with him when he moves in with House and his patience with his obnoxious friend is sorely tested.

Despite the various problems facing the characters - including deadly diseases - I never really found myself saying, "Gee, I can't wait until next week so I can see how this turns out." It didn't infect my psyche the way more compelling shows like LOST and Smallville have, and just within the context of this show, none of the second-season arcs riveted me as much as the first-season ordeal with corrupt millionaire Ed Vogler (Chi McBride). The season finale is a definite cliff-hanger, but the first episode of the third season, while boasting an emotional and uplifting ending, doesn't really tie up the loose ends very well.

House really didn't improve with its second season, and if it weren't for American Idol, I have my doubts as to whether it would still be around. But as long as House keeps being an insufferable git with an impressive vocabulary and razor-sharp wit, something tells I'm going to keep watching.