Deck the halls early this year
Almost Christmas Starring Danny Glover, Gabrielle Union, Kimberly Elise, Omar Epps, Mo’Nique, JB Smoove, Jessie T. Usher, Romany Malco and Nicole Ari Parker. Written and directed by David E. Talbert. Opens Friday at major theatres. 123 minutes. AA
Almost as hard as accepting a Christmas movie in early November is one themed on a family attempting togetherness to the tick of a clock.
Luckily, the dysfunctional deadline is just a faint backdrop to this seasonal smiler written and directed by David E. Talbert ( Baggage Claim).
He’s assembled talented and likeable actors who don’t mind playing fools in the service of good cheer, even if they’re all better than the patchy script.
This yuletide setting isn’t the traditional one of snow, although there’s plenty of frosty family ice.
It’s Birmingham, Ala., where recently widowed Walter (Danny Glover) is facing his first Christmas since the death of his beloved Grace, seen in a misty opening montage set to the 1970s Four Tops swooner “Ain’t No Woman (Like the One I’ve Got).”
Walter and Grace had good times and abundant love in their brightly lit home on Willow Lane, but the heart-shaped memo didn’t get to their four grown-up kids: sassing sisters Cheryl (Kimberly Elise) and Rachel (Gabrielle Union); ambitious politician Christian (Romany Malco); and striving basketball star Evan (Jessie T. Usher).
All Walter wants for Christmas is a five-day truce from arguing offspring. Easier said than done — especially when his diva sister-in-law May (Mo’Nique), philandering sonin-law Lonnie (JB Smoove) and other restless relations make the scene. How do you rate their chances of success?
About as good as Walter making a mess of Grace’s sweet potato pie recipe, and of Lonnie toppling off the roof while fixing a Santa display — and also falling into trouble when his wandering eye fixes upon a come-hithering clerk (Keri Hilson) at the grocery store.
But the trouble isn’t terminal and the epiphanies go down like eggnog, along with the smooth R&B and jazz on the soundtrack.
And why not? It’s Christmas, almost.
Also opening: Stella Meghie’s Jean of the Joneses, a dsyfuctional family comedy, at the Carlton; and Farren Blackburn’s home-invasion thriller Shut In, at various GTA theatres. Peter Howell