Nothing Like The Holidays - Released 12 Dec 2008

Christmas with the Rodriguez family brings more than its fair share of secrets, lies and drama (oh and also some comedy) in this absurd and silly but warm-hearted festive production. As each son and daughter (plus a few close family friends cum ex-es) visit gets underway, the secrets begin to come to light and the family actually becomes closer because of the strife. Each member of the family has an issue to be put up with the rest of the family at some point. A father is dying and is reluctant to tell, a mum is being ridiculously jumping up to conclusion, one son comes back from the war and has his personal persona to deal with, the other son is conclusively being a smart-a$$. A typical, everyday, norm family. Seriously!

The plot is safe to say unremarkable but acceptable. The whole thing centers on a Christmas gathering of a latin-american clan with one son being welcomed home after serving for the military, and as fitting such a concept, nearly everyone involved has at least one secret, where the secret(s) that is often less secret than is presumed. It is all far too dramatic and sentimental. You have love issues at every angles, revenges, poor judgemental attitudes and the good old 'over the dinner conflicts'. They did try to sneak in some comedy relief in there, and thankfully they worked (to some degree).

With a star-studded cast, Debra Messing (Will and Grace), John Leguizamo (The Happening), Freddy Rodriguez (Six Feet Under), Vanessa Ferlito (CSI:NY), Alfred Molina (Spiderman 2), one would think that there is much quality in the movie. Performance-wise, yes, there are qualities. Their roles on the other hand, kinda dissapointing. Messing's character is rather low-key for Messing's standards. Lequizamo was probably offered the role simply to add some laughable scenes, just to balance the drama out. It worked and definitely paid off, thought they could have done far much better than relying on 1 single person for sillyness comedy. Ferlito was as beautiful as she could have been. Trading places from a chick who carries a pistol in CSI for this role really helped her image as a vesatile actress. Although the toughness can still be seen at certain lines. Nevertheless, the whole production deserves a handful of credit given to them. The message that I got after watching this movie - "One can always rely on one's family's strength to get through many difficulties and obstacles in life". Powerful message but fairly average delivery.
3.5/5 stars