Image via Chelsea Patrick
How to Ruin the Holidays might embrace moments of melodrama on its yuletide journey, before diving into the dynamic of family get-togethers, but it never feels less than warm and fuzzy. As the eldest sister, Michelle (Amber Nash) must work her way through this emotional minefield of a family Christmas, when younger sibling Andrea (Kate Lambert) calls her home for the holidays. Employing emotional blackmail and no small amount of subterfuge Michelle is convinced to travel back to look after their ailing father (Colin Mochrie) and learning impaired older brother Mark (Luke Davis). Leaving an ineffectual agent (Ronny Chieng) and an out of work flatmate (Aisha Tyler) in Los Angeles, Michelle comes to learn that Christmas is about so much more than reconciling with your relatives.
Image via Felipe Var Del Rey
What becomes apparent early on in this surprisingly safe family dramedy is how few chances it is prepared to take. With resentment defining their dynamic in those opening scenes, Michelle is forced to reflect on failed ambitions by holding the family accountable, leading to moments of quiet reflection that somehow fail to resonate. There is nothing wrong with the performances from this close-knit ensemble, but How to Ruin the Holidays simply suffers from a lack of substance, despite decent chemistry between its central quartet.
Image via Felipe Var Del Rey
Both Ronny Chieng and Aisha Tyler feel wasted in supporting roles that serve little purpose apart from allowing audiences a chance to step away from this bickering family. Improv legend Colin Mochrie is encumbered by an archetype that sees him shuffling around as an elderly relative, while Luke Davis neatly sidesteps any attempts at type casting by embracing his manchild moments with gusto. However, even his charisma fails to sustain this film for long since the script goes from crisis to reconciliation too quickly as everything falls into place.
Image via Felipe Var Del Rey
Any personal or professional dramas that give this movie gravitas are hamstrung by convention, since darker emotional elements are glossed over and remain unexplored. Some of the best Christmas movies manage to deliver an emotional sucker punch without gift wrapping resolutions or forcing reconciliation, but How to Ruin the Holidays consciously avoids comparisons with Planes, Trains, and Automobiles or Ang Lee’s The Ice Storm, settling instead for mediocrity.
Image via Felipe Var Del Rey
For some the crisis of accountability that underpins this film might just be enough to make it onto their Christmas watch list, but for many How to Ruin the Holidays will get lost amongst a sea of other possibilities. It fails to tackle the emotional themes with enough depth and avoids depicting any amount of angst on screen that may have provided audiences with something more to get their teeth into. Those quibbles aside, there is nothing fundamentally wrong with the film, since it occupies an area of cinema best described as average. With decent performances hampered by a wafer-thin premise, How to Ruin the Holidays is Sunday afternoon background noise at best, that audiences will dip in and out of without missing anything major.
How to Ruin the Holidays on limited release in the US and Canada, as well as being available on demand from December.
