Nothing Like the Holidays
by Nick PinkertonThe Rodriguez kids, spread far from their native Chicago, reunite for Christmas under the roof of their patriarch (Alfred Molina). Spruce with superficial ethnic color and you've got a real niche filler. Recast with script retouches and plantains traded out for eggplant Parmesan or kielbasa, and the movie would work just the same. Feasible family resemblance was of no concern in negotiating the supergroup of mostly Latino actors. There's John Leguizamo, a yuppie whose defensive prig wife (Debra Messing, recipient of "oh, white people" eye rolls) refuses, to his parents' horror, to lie down and multiply like a proper Catholic; Vanessa Ferlito, aspiring actress; and velvet-eyed Freddy Rodríguez, the returning Iraq vet who, with his welled-up, squelched hurt, seems a refugee from a better movie. Conflict is served up buffet-style, with portions of infidelity, impending divorce, career crisis, fatal illness, survivor guilt, and blood feuds — almost every scene according to a recipe done better elsewhere before. (Even when painstakingly explained, the central plot twist doesn't make sense.) The cast is appealing enough, and those looking for seasonal warm fuzzies can find them, as predictably touching as a muddled-through "Auld Lang Syne."
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