2 Days in ParisRelease Date: Nov. 26
Director: Seth GordonWriters: Matt Allen, Caleb
Wilson, Jon Lucas, Scott MooreCinematographer: Jeffrey L.
KimballStarring: Vince Vaughn, Reese
Witherspoon, Robert Duvall, Sissy Spacek, Jon Voight, Mary
SteenburgenStudio/Running Time: New Line
Cinema, 82 mins.
Proving that quantity does not equal
quality, director Seth Gordon (The King of Kong) presents Four
Christmases, a weak, soulless holiday film in spite of its inclusion of five previous Oscar winners.2 Days in ParisWhen their plane to Fiji is grounded,
self-centered lovers Kate (Reese Witherspoon) and Brad (Vince Vaughn)
are forced to pay a visit to each of their divorced parents on
Christmas day. Brad’s redneck father (Robert Duvall) continuously
ridicules his son while his brothers, amateur cage fighters, use his
body as a punching bag. Brad’s mother (Sissy Spacek) is having sex
with Brad’s ex-best friend. Kate’s mother (Mary Steenburgen) has
given her soul—and body—to Pastor Phil (Dwight Yoakam), and
Kate’s father (Jon Voight) actually appears to be kind of normal.
The behaviors of their dysfunctional families have, perhaps
understandably, kept the young couple from plunging into marriage.
But, after being spit on by a baby, terrorized by grade schoolers and
embarrassed by their loved ones, Kate and Brad inexplicably begin to
question their noncommittal ways and turn their thoughts to holy
matrimony. Holy crap!
Although we’ve come to expect such
disappointment from Vaughn recently (The Break-Up, Fred
Claus) it becomes downright painful to watch Academy Award
winners Witherspoon, Duvall, Spacek, Steenburgen and Voight bring
their games down to this level. Only Jon Favreau’s portrayal of
Brad’s psychotic brother and Brad’s dramatic reading as Joseph
during the church nativity play come close to eliciting any real laughs
in this holiday disaster.