Nutty as a fruitcake

If you’ve ever caught Ben Affleck on late-night TV, you already know he’s quite the cutup. No matter what you might think of his luck with women — or his taste in them — there’s no doubt the dimpled heartthrob from Beantown has his irreverent side.

In Surviving Christmas — with the aid of a superb supporting cast and some clever writing — he gets to show it.

Affleck stars as Drew Latham, a high-powered advertising mogul who is berated by his girlfriend Missy (Jennifer Morrison) when he gives her tickets to Tahiti for Christmas.

Missy feels Christmas is for spending time for family and wonders why she has never met Drew’s. When even the most casual of friends reject Drew’s pleas for company on Christmas Day, he returns to his family home, only to find it inhabited by another clan, the Valcos. They initially think him a nut job, but agree to be his surrogate family for the holiday for a cool $250,000. They still think he’s nuts, but 250 grand is 250 grand, you know what I mean?

Surviving Christmas requires more than a little suspension of disbelief. For instance, if Drew is such a successful businessman, why is he so strange? Keep in mind his specialty is in advertising, not software engineering, and he is expected to come in contact with the public every day. It would seem his quirks might have gotten in his way more than once.

Also, much of the humor is grounded in the Valcos’ inability to accept Drew, despite his largesse. I don’t know about you, for that kind of money I could put up with a whole lot for one day. A whole lot.

But the movie is a wacky comedy, not a documentary, and works well in that context. It’s neither as nasty as last year’s Bad Santa nor as saccharine as your average holiday comedy. One of the funniest moments involves a snowball fight in which Drew pummels the Valcos’ son, but isn’t quite as anxious to get into it when the father (James Gandolfini) comes outside.

The dance that seems to be going on between the writer, director and actors makes the movie most enjoyable. They manage to sustain a manic tone for most of the film without ever seeming too off-putting. And when Surviving Christmas occasionally veers into romantic comedy, it does so without becoming too forced or mushy.

Of course, none of this would be possible without the excellent cast. Affleck is a blast as the emotionally stressed Drew (even if he seems to be trying just a little too hard sometimes). Gandolfini, not surprisingly, is hilarious as the put-upon host who always seems one second away from pummeling his guest. And SCTV‘s Catherine O’Hara is a treat as "Mom."

Despite its inconsistencies, Surviving Christmas is a nice glass of spiked eggnog for those tired of the same old holiday sugar cookies.

Surviving Christmas
PG
Starting tomorrow at area theaters
Two-and-a-half reels out of four

Recommended rental

Dawn of the Dead
R
Available Tuesday

The feature-film debut of director Zack Snyder, Dawn of the Dead is a modern retelling of George Romero’s 1979 horror classic. The original was the second installment in a trilogy that began with Night of the Living Dead and concluded with Day of the Dead.

The new version stars Sarah Polley and Ving Rhames as two of the last remaining people on an Earth that has been ravaged by flesh-eating zombies. After finding refuge in a mall with a handful of other survivors, they decide that their only hope for survival is to make it in one piece, so to speak, to a zombie-free island miles away. The movie also takes a cue from last year’s 28 Days Later, because these zombies really move.