This Christmas

I decided to catch another flick today, just because I can, and decided to go cheesy with a Christmas flick. I saw This Christmas at the Rainbow. Like most Christmas films, I'd have to say it was okay, but not great.

Written and directed by Preston Whitmore, the film is about the Whitfield family getting together for Christmas for the first time in four years. Starring an ensemble cast including Delroy Lindo, Loretta Devine, Columbus Short, Regina King, Mekhi Phifer, Idris Elba, Sharon Leal, Lauren London, and Chris Brown.

The film is a family drama with many different little plot lines. Ma'Dere (Devine) is the matriarch of the family who lives with her long term boyfriend, Joe (Lindo). The visiting family includes daughter Lisa (King) and her adulterous, controlling husband and two kids, daughter Kelli (Leal), a model in New York, daughter Mel (London), a professional student and her new boyfriend, son Claude (Short), a soldier in the Army who brought a big surprise with him, son Quentin (Elba), a musician who rarely makes it home, and the only child still living at home, son Michael (Brown), an aspiring singer who everyone calls "Baby".


It's a little hard to get into the plot since there are so many subplots. Basically, Lisa's skeezy husband is trying to get Lisa to get the rest of the family to convince Ma'Dere to sell the family drycleaning business to get money. Kelli and Lisa don't get along because Kelli hates Lisa's husband, Lisa feels Kelli is selfish for deserting the family business for her own career, and Kelli feels Lisa tries to make the rest of the family feel bad for not doing enough. Quentin and Joe don't get along because Quentin feels Joe is trying to take his daddy's place. Claude is hiding a woman at a hotel nearby for reasons later discovered and Baby just wants to sing, but is afraid to tell his mother because she feels she lost her husband and her son to music (the patriarch of the family left to pursue a musical career many years ago). Got all that?


One thing I absolutely hate about the IMDB message boards is that whenever there is a movie with an all black cast, there is always the inevitable "Why do all black movies suck?" thread that is just filled with racist comments back and forth with sweeping, generalized comments. I don't believe this is a bad movie, I feel it is an okay movie with great characters that gets lost in the different stories. One user comment on IMDB had said that it starts out slow and then seems to race to the finish. I would have to agree with that. In the beginning you're trying to figure out who everybody is and how they fit and what their character and situation is, then all the plotlines seem to be going at once pretty quickly. It all ties up nicely, but it takes a little while to get things straight.

All in all, the actors were all great and it was nicely shot. It was heartwarming at times, a teensy bit cheesy in others, in terms of how quickly all the family squabbles get resolved in a matter of a few days. As a holiday movie, it was okay. Not great, but still better than Deck the Halls.

More ramblings to come.....