The holiday has many moving parts.
And so does “Love The Coopers,” a hodgepodge of Christmas movie cliches dusted with a few whimsical and wistful moments. It follows members of one family on Christmas Eve as they prepare for an evening together that will end in a hospital.
They are a practical wife and adventurous husband (Diane Keaton, John Goodman); their kids, jobless single dad Ed Helms and party girl Olivia Wilde; Keaton’s shoplifting sister (Marissa Tomei); and their lonely dad Alan Arkin.
That none of them seem related or that what happens to them slightly credible is beside the point. As with Santa Claus suspension of belief is mandatory.
Keaton and Goodman bicker over what comes next in their lives, now the kids have been grown for, oh, the past decade or two. Arkin is pining for his only friend, a waitress played by Amanda Seyfried, who is leaving town.
Helms argues with his unpleasant ex, played by Alex Bernstein of HBO’s “Getting On” who is in danger of becoming stereotyped in that role.
Tomei gets arrested by a gay cop, played by Anthony Mackie, and each teaches the other a valuable lesson. June Squibb is an aged relative whose mental state is played for laughs.
But Wilde’s airport flirtation with a soldier, played by boy next door Jake Lacy, in desert fatigues adds a little rum to the punch bowl. Their back and forth is the romantic bickering of opposite stereotypes time immemorial: she’s a judgmental and intense liberal and he’s laid back with traditional values.
You know how this will end – it’s Christmas!
Flashes of scenes from the characters’ childhoods offer insight into who they are today and add a pleasing non linear lurch. Steve Martin is an amiable narrator. And streets seem to be filled with actual snow.
The Christmas movie is a genre unto itself.
And this bland film by a writer and a director of – “Stepmom,” “Fred Claus” and “Hope Floats” – is one of them.
**1/2 Two and one half
With Diane Keaton, John Goodman, Olivia Wilde, Ed Helms, Jake Lacy, Amanda Seyfried, Marisa Tomei, June Squibb.
Produced by Brian Grazer, Jessie Nelson, Michael London, Janice Williams.
Written by Steve Rogers. Directed by Jessie Nelson.
Rated PG-13: thematic elements, language, some sexuality. Approximate running time: 107 minutes.
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