Review of “Deck The Halls”
One thing that always comes around at this time of year is the American Santa film. If you believe in them, this is a mostly cheerful, sometimes cheesy and always predictable version that gives a few good laughs with its snowy and run-of-the-mill slapstick comedy before nose-diving down the chimney into a schmaltzy feel-good ending.
Steve Finch (Mathew Broderick) is orderly, traditional and wears jumpers. He’s the optometrist in a small tidy town in New England, and Chairman of the local ‘Winterfest’ celebration, making him the guy who knows more about Christmas than anyone else. That is until obnoxious car salesman Buddy Hall (Danny De Vito) moves in across the street, where he plans to compensate for his personal inadequacies by making his house so bright with Christmas decorations that it can be seen from outer space. The two neighbours forget all about the spirit of Christmas as Steve tries to stop the increasingly abominable, yet strangely likeable Buddy from achieving his objective. But each time he tries, Steve’s plans go awry and he perpetually ends up the fall guy. Whilst Buddy and Steve are fighting it on the snow-laden battlefield of their suburban front lawns, their families are getting to know and like each other. Buddy’s wife Tia (Kristin Chenoweth) helps Steve’s wife Kelly (Kristin Davis) with her career, and Steve’s teen daughter Madison (Alia Shawkat) takes fashion lessons from Buddy’s Paris Hilton-like teen twins Ashley and Emily (Sabrina & Kelly Aldridge). The men don’t notice any of this; they just keep escalating the feud. Can they sort out their differences and achieve redemption before the 25th December, or will they destroy the neighbourhood and their families? Umm, let me think?
The two leads can do this stuff in their sleep: Broderick the mild-mannered wimp and De Vito the overly friendly obsessive, and the script would have been the better for a continued escalation of their antics into darker or naughtier territory, as that’s where the best laughs are to be found. Kristin Chenoweth sparkles nicely as the long-suffering partner of loser Buddy, and there are some cute little cameos from the quirky people of the town.
Overall it’s a modest and unpretentious family holiday film, offering a small snowball of cheer, but nothing new in the humour, nor any insight into the current state of Christmas beyond being nice to your family.
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