I’m quite surprised that Surviving Christmas (2004) hasn’t been reviewed by me before. After all the crap I have watched over the years you’d think that a Christmas film starring Ben Affleck, James Gandolfini and Catherine O’Hara would be higher up in the pecking order. But if I am being perfectly honest, I just never knew this film existed. I don’t remember it ever coming up in my searches for Christmas films and I have never heard anyone talking about it. It was hidden, out of sight, not a blip on my radar. I wish it had stayed that way.
While watching this I got a bit of Trivia saying that this came out in competition with a film I have reviewed, Christmas with the Kranks (2004), and I will give this film one thing. It was better than that piece of shit, although that is really not saying much at all. The film bills itself as a comedy-romance, and it fails in both regards. I’ll start with the romance aspect of the film. The main romance between Ben Affleck and Christian Applegate is so rushed that it is not believable at all, basically going from hating each other to loving each other immediately. There is no growth between them, and they spend more time arguing than sharing any kind of chemistry. There is also a kind of romance story between James Gandolfini and Catherine O’Hara which is done much better, but that isn’t the main romance the film focuses on, so it takes a backseat. As for the comedy of the aspect of the film, where is it? Is the comedy in the room with us right now? Not a single laugh, nor even a slight chuckle for the whole runtime. But the main issue of the film is in Ben Affleck’s character. What the hell is going on here? The majority of the film he comes across as a complete nutcase. The film tries to make you think its because he is trying to capture his childhood so acts like a child, but he acts like that way before that becomes a part of the plot. And then suddenly he becomes a voice of reason and matures out of nowhere. And Affleck’s performance is just painful to sit through. I like him as an actor, but this was rough. Obviously, I’m not going to recommend it if you couldn’t tell already.
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