NOTHING LIKE THE HOLIDAYS [PG-13]
review by Kilian Melloy
The Rodriguez clan, a boisterous family of Puerto Rican-Americans, gather at the family home in Chicago for Christmas, setting in motion this sweet, though predictable, film by director Alfredo de Villa.
This is a genre picture through and through, and as such it obeys the rules of its formula. There’s a kindly, if physically imposing, patriarch, Edy Rodriguez (Alfred Molina); his wife of 36 years, Anna (Elizabeth Peña); and a brood of three kids, brothers Mauricio (John Leguizamo) and Jesse (Freddy Rodriguez), and their sister, middle child Roxanna (Vanessa Ferlito).
The parents and children of the Rodriguez clan have secrets, significant others and traumas to sort through. Edy wants to put off such business until after the holidays, so as to be able to focus fully on enjoying the kids’ visits; what the script, by Alison Swan and Rick Najera points out is that messy private business is, sooner or later, family business, and there’s no time like a family gathering to air it out and neaten it up.
Edy, for instance, keeps taking mysterious phone calls that he won’t discuss with his wife; Anna leaps to the conclusion that he’s having an affair, and announces over an elaborate welcome-home dinner that she wants a divorce.
Jesse has just come home from Iraq. Eaten up with survivor’s guilt, he’s not sure how to reintegrate with his family and friends; seeing his ex, Marissa (Melonie Diaz), with her new beau Fernando (Ramses Jimenez) in tow only sharpens his sense of loss and confusion.
Mauricio and his Jewish wife, Sarah (Debra Messing), have bridged their own cultural divides, except for one: he wants kids, and she wants to hold off and concentrate on her career. For Sarah, a visit to her in-laws is a constant barrage of pressure to reproduce (”So when are you two gonna make some Sorta-Ricans?” is one typical query); to Anna, Sarah seems blunt and unfriendly — until sides start to take shape over the question of Anna’s wish for a divorce.
Roxanna, back from Los Angeles, where everyone assumes she’s got a lavish movie star life going on, has to ask similar family-versus-work questions, with handsome family friend Ozzy (Jay Hernandez) weighing heavily on the side of giving up her dreams of stardom.
The kids get drunk in the attic while griping about their parents; romantic rivals disrupt Christmas Eve with a brawl; a gnarled, indestructible tree symbolizes the heartiness, ugliness, and stability of family. It would all be so tedious if not for the film’s dialogue and characterizations, which are funny, witty, and win you over in spite of yourself.
Oh yes, and then there’s comic go-to Luis Guzmán as a maybe-gay sort-of uncle (or something); the film generally knows when to pull away from too much sweetness and happy sentiment, but when it doesn’t, Guzmán provides a light touch to keep things lively and energetic.
Freddy Rodriguez has finally got a decent movie role, one that offers him a chance to do some work of substance that isn’t Federico, his “Six Feet Under” character. He emotes pain, longing, and humor, and shares an electric chemistry with Melonie Diaz.
This might also be the film that rescues Leguizamo’s career: not counting the quickly-forgotten “Righteous Kill” and “Miracle at St. Anna,” when last seen on the big screen, Leguizamo was calmly cutting his wrists in the M. Night Shyamalan dud “The Happening” (and the audience felt like following suit). This movie will probably only have limited appeal, but its target audience is just the sort that can keep an actor going, much as a movie like this comes back into our consciousness year after year.•••
Kilian Melloy is the assistant arts editor for the national network EDGE.
