Mark Reviews Movies: CHRISTMAS WITH THE CAMPBELLS

Christmas with the Campbells, RLJE Films

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Review by Mark Dujsik | December 1, 2022

The premise and hackneyed plot of Christmas with Campbells are the stuff of any generic holiday movie that one could find on a family-friendly basic cable channel. The gimmick of Clare Niederpruem's confused movie, though, is that its humor attempts to be just as naughty as its general mood is allegedly nice. In between all of the romantic complications and relationship misunderstandings, this movie tosses in the occasional jokes about male genitals, casual drug use, and sex, while also featuring exchanges of double entendre so strained that they become their own kind of vulgarity.

These two modes inherently clash, and neither Niederpruem nor the screenwriting team finds a way to marry them together. The obvious method would likely be to portray this material as parody of those cheesy, broadcast holiday movies that get churned out every year, and despite a couple of the actors seeming to believe they're in such a comedy, they are alone in that thinking.

The setup here revolves around Jesse (Brittany Snow), a part-time photographer who loves Christmas but whose family situation means she doesn't really get to celebrate it. That was the case until she started dating Shawn (Alex Moffat), whose parents already see her as part of the family and who has arranged a getaway from the city to the mountain-town home of his childhood for this holiday. The other shoe drops quickly for Jesse: Shawn has a job interview that will prevent him making the trip, and by the way, he think it's time for his and Jesse's relationship to come to an end.

Since Jesse has nowhere else to go and no one else to spend Christmas with, Shawn's mother Liz (Julia Duffy) insists that her son's ex-girlfriend keep her plans and spend the holiday with Shawn's parents. Jesse does, and soon enough, she meets Shawn's cousin David (Justin Long), with a drawl suggesting he comes from Colorado via central Texas, who has arrived to surprise his aunt Liz and uncle Robert (George Wendt) with his company for Christmas.

Nothing that happens here needs to be explained or could be spoiled, right? Obviously, a hasty attraction and a not-so-secret romantic affection develop between Jesse and David, whose lexicon is filled with all sorts of inexplicable sayings of homespun wisdom. On a certain level, this character is such a cliché—even amidst all of the clichés in this story, which is saying something—that Long's straightforward performance of down-home charm is either awkwardly sincere or a form of deadpan comedy. One hopes the latter is the case, and maybe that was the intention in Barbara Kymlicka, Dan Lagana, and Vince Vaughn's screenplay. Niederpruem's approach, though, is so syrupy sweet and genuinely sentimental that very little here feels like a joke—even the obvious jokes.

There are plenty of gags, but none of them land—partly because of the movie's apparent tonal aversion to them but mostly because they're so predictable, random, and intermittent. There's Liz and Robert's scheduled but still-active sex life, which is supposedly funny on its own, as well as the parents getting high on cough syrup or inhaling paint fumes.

David's childhood crush Becky (JoAnna Garcia Swisher) provides most of the clumsy and forced innuendo, although Shawn certainly adds to the annoyance with his juvenile obsession with his penis A little of Moffat's vainglorious schtick goes a long way, and especially because he seems to think he's in the parody version of this material that otherwise doesn't exist, the performance wears thin well before the character's return.

Yes, Shawn does come home for Christmas, which is a development that should come as a shock to anyone who has never before heard of the concept of comedy. He begins to have a change of heart about living and working in the big city, and if that's case, maybe he was too quick to dump Jesse. Will this interfere with the blossoming potential for romance between Jesse and David? Is Becky going to swoop in if neither Jesse nor David just says how she or feels? The only suspense generated by this material is when a very good dog disappears from the movie, only to be spoken about by other characters, and one might worry that something happened to the pup on set (It shows up again, thankfully).

Christmas with the Campbells is an occasionally confounding experience, if only because it seems to simultaneously have completely different modes and audiences in mind. Ultimately, the filmmakers rely on playing it safe, making its dullness not a bit confusing.

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