Christmas time is here — and with the holiday comes yet another festive, dysfunctional family dramedy in “Love the Coopers.”
“Love the Coopers,” released in theaters Friday, has all the typical ingredients of a family at odds scraped together from their various individual struggles to, once again, attend their annual family Christmas celebration. In an attempt to transform four generations of Cooper dysfunction into a “Love Actually”-esque jingle bell jaunt through tender family moments, holiday romance and uncomfortable relational struggles played for laughs, director Jessie Nelson (“I Am Sam”) landed a star-studded cast for the comedy.
However, he failed to produce a new holiday classic with the film, due in large part to distracting narration by the family dog (voiced by Steve Martin) and sentimental scenes that are cliche enough to have been snatched from the likes of Hallmark Christmas cards.
The stage is set from the beginning of “Love the Coopers” for a holiday entertainment that provides plenty of laughs and plenty of drama. Sam and Charlotte, the grandparents of the clan (John Goodman and Diane Keaton, respectively), are just trying to make the holidays perfect for the kids and grandkids — or more accurately, make the holidays perfect to hide their impending divorce.
Meanwhile, the couple’s unemployed son, Hank (Ed Helms), a newly single father, attempts to discipline his unruly children, especially his toddler daughter who, following the trend of almost every child in almost every family dramedy, has recently discovered four-letter words and makes great use of them throughout the Cooper family Christmas fiasco. Also attending is Sam and Charlotte’s blacksheep daughter, Eleanor (Olivia Wilde), who, single yet again at the holidays, has spontaneously enlisted the help of Joe (Jake Lacy), a soon-to-ship-out soldier she met at the airport. Throw in a kleptomaniac aunt (Marisa Tomei), a lonely, aging family patriarch (Alan Arkin) and his favorite also-lonely waitress (Amanda Seyfried), and the cast of characters with excessive emotional baggage is complete.
The flatness of the humor, largely dependent on toilet jokes, a few off-color Christmas-y puns and raunchy gingerbread cookies, is disappointing, especially when delivered by such an experienced and varied cast. Written by Steven Rogers (writer for “P.S. I Love You”), the film’s script is lackluster at best, and limits the acting skills of seasoned comedic pros like Goodman and Keaton.
The scenes that carry the movie are mostly those between Eleanor and Joe. The chemistry between Wilde and Lacy is phenomenal, and, when cast in the contrasting roles of Eleanor, a staunchly liberal atheist and free spirit, and Joe, an equally staunch Republican Christian and soldier, the “opposites attract” principle is made believable. Their relationship in “Love the Coopers” has potential to extend a deeper romantic plot — perhaps, if not the most groundbreaking Christmas film, “Love the Coopers” at least discovered a solid future onscreen couple in Wilde and Lacy.
The formulaic plot, choppy dialogue, and faux-Kodak-moment sentimentality in “Love the Coopers” all combine to form a family reunion that falls flat. The film rides on established cast members and the single authentic plotline of Eleanor and Joe, with some cute kids, awkward teens and senile elders thrown in to provide a few laughs. Moviegoers should stay cozy this holiday season with festive reruns on TV, count on their own family festivities to provide all the drama they need and go ahead and cross “Love the Coopers” off of their Christmas movie lists.