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Film review: Four Christmases

Seth Gordon's crass Four Christmases is one of those grisly yuletide comedies that starts off attacking the bogus spirit of Christmas and the horrors of family life and ends up as a sentimental carol exalting the pleasures of both. Vince Vaughn and Reese Witherspoon play a yuppie couple who avoid celebrating with the four households of their divorced parents by pretending they spend Christmas doing volunteer work in the developing world. Instead, they go scuba diving at luxury resorts. But fog strands them at San Francisco airport, their families see them interviewed on TV and they're forced to visit their two dads, two mums, each extremely off-putting (and each played by an ageing Oscar winner) and mix with ghastly siblings, nieces and nephews. At the end, I felt that rather than pull a wishbone with any one of those involved, I'd join a Christmas caravan crossing the Sahara through bandit territory, with Mark Thatcher as guide. Comedy Family Reese Witherspoon (read more)