Um Natal Quase Perfeito

Review Date 4/30/2019

I Have Reviewed OVER 500 "Christmas Films and Specials". Please BEWARE Of films and specials with just one review! For instance When "It's a POSITIVE" chances are that the reviewer was involved with the production. "If its Negative" then they may have a grudge against the film for whatever reason. I am fare about these films.

Huge ensemble movies about family are hard to pull off but this film made it look easy. The chemistry was great with all of them. I love the fact that this film could be about any family. Its very funny. I love the scene where they bring out "grandma".

Walter Meyer (Danny Glover) is a retired mechanic who lost the love of his life one year earlier. Now that the holiday season is here, he invites daughters Rachel (Gabrielle Union) and Cheryl (Kimberly Elise) and sons Christian (Romany Malco) and Evan (Jessie T. Usher) to his house for a traditional celebration. Poor Walter soon realizes that if his bickering children and the rest of the family can spend five days together under the same roof, it will truly be a Christmas miracle.

It is sad that many people will pass on watching this and that is a shame.

Add this to your must see watch list of Christmas films.

There must be something wrong with me because I really enjoyed this movie. I'm so happy that there wasn't a "big" tree lighting to go to and they weren't trying to save the town. Quite the opposite - just a good old family Christmas with Monique who steals the show. Great, great casting all around.

The movie wasn't a cliche, feel good, cheesy christmas movie. The family drama was intense and it was nicely put, but it got boring at times. The performances were pretty decent too.

Danny Glover plays an aging widower in this holidays movie. It's been a year since his wife died and now all of his children are gathering back home for Christmas. All the children have problems of their own.

And that's about it. This is about as by the numbers Christmas family drama as you can make it. It's almost comical how every single character has their own little drama moment, their own little life crisis to be solved through the magic of Christmas. And they're such clichéd problems as well. One of the has forgotten to make time for their family. One of them is using a bit too many pills. One of the them doesn't know what direction to take in their life. One of them has problems with their spouse. They're so inoffensive that it's almost offensive in and on itself.

And it's not like the movie isn't well-acted. These are good actors, all of them, with Glover being a legend in his own right. Rather it's the script that doesn't have any backbone to it, nothing to say or to convey.

Then again, even though I was more than a bit exasperated with it, the film is, in the end, harmless. I know that's a faint praise to give, but then, it's a pretty faint movie experience.

See it, don't see it it. It probably won't make much of a difference either way.

After 10-months when his wife Grace passed, Walter (Danny Glover) wants to bring the family together for a Christmas dinner and that may be the last one since he is thinking of selling the house, but has told no one. He knows it won't be easy since many of his children have issues with each other. He just asks them for 5- days to be civil to each other until Christmas.

This is touted as comedy but I found nothing funny in here, no clever lines or good sight-gags. Well, they tried a funny sight-gag when Lonnie (J.B. Smoove) tries to set up the Santa and sleigh on a roof that was not funny, over-acted and actually, quite annoying. Okay, they tried another one when Rachel gets stuck in a window ledge trying to get inside. Could have been funny. Wasn't.

I would call this a slice of life that many will recognize as something that may have happened in their lives during a Christmas or some- such holiday when all are not so civil to each other. Hey, it happens. For a Christmas movie there is very little Christmas music in here.

In time we learn all the issues each sibling has with each other and we really don't care about them, but you know the script, by the end of all this, will resolve everything. And then all are happy. Nice, eh?

Danny Glover is always good in any role he takes. As Walter he has a lot on his mind: selling the house, making sure his kids don't kill each other and looking constantly for the recipe his wife Grace used to make her masterpiece: Sweet Potato Pie.

Notables: the siblings: Gabrielle Union as Rachel a single mother trying to finish law school; Kimberly Elise as Cheryl who is married to Lonnie a one-time basketball star; Romany Malco as Christian the politician who is married to Sonya (Nicole Are Parker); Jessie T. Usher as Evan the High School basketball star who hopes to make it to the pros.

Other notables: John Michael Higgins as Brooks the manager of Christian running for Congress; Omar Epps as Malachi who is constantly after Rachel as his love interest; and Mo'Nique as Aunt May and Walter's sister-in-law. And let's not forget Keri Hilson as Jasmine who Rachel invites to the Christmas dinner knowing this will upset Cheryl because she, Rachel, knows Lonnie had sex with Jasmine. You will learn that Rachel and Cheryl can't stand each other.

The story moves along at a good pace, the dialogues come quick, but again nothing funny as I saw it. There should be a category that lists some movies as: COULD HAVE BEEN FUNNY. Okay then, that is my category. This is pleasant, not funny, but more of a kind of slice of life story. Kinda. (5/10)

Violence: Not really. Sex: No. Nudity: No .Language: Small stuff and not much of it.