NATIONAL LAMPOON'S CHRISTMAS VACATION **** (out of five stars) A review by Jamey Hughton
Starring-Chevy Chase, Beverly D'Angelo, Randy Quaid, Diane Ladd and John Randolph Director-Jeremiah S. Chechik Rated PG Released 1989 Warner Brothers
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The third installment in the National Lampoon `Vacation' series is entitled `Christmas Vacation', even though for this outing the Griswolds do not actually go anywhere. They stay at home during the Holidays to welcome a large gathering of family members in a reunion patriarch Clark (Chevy Chase) has been carefully organizing. Clark knows, when everyone arrives for Christmas, that idiotic feuding will commence around the Griswold household. But, he has confidence he can maintain sanity and still manage to host a memorable Christmas for everyone. Or so he thinks.
In my opinion, `National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation' is the best and funniest of the series. I say this, of course, without proper knowledge of what `European Vacation' is like (although I'm told it sucks, so I think I'm safe). This film captures the humor and outlandish situations of the clumsy Clark Griswold with far better success than the sporadically amusing `Vacation' and the positively dreadful `Vegas Vacation', offering a consistent slew of belly laughs and Kodak moments galore. It works as a comedy, with shades of both physical humor and genial sweetness, but if also functions as a memorable holiday feature. In some slapstick-driven sort of way, it captures the essence of Christmas - coming off as both charming and hilarious in simultaneous fashion.
The troupe of disgruntled family members that arrive at the Griswold household represent that basis for a lot of funny gags, many of which are actually inspired. After the hazardous task of picking the proper tree, Clark and Helen (Beverly D'Angelo) welcome both sets of parents to their domain. His, played by Diane Ladd and John Randolph, are the typical set of meek but encouraging well-wishers. Hers, played by Doris Roberts and the late E.G. Marshall, are more of the pushy type. Director Jeremiah S. Chechik stages this deranged family get-together with inspired comic timing, recreating the possible scenario with a great deal of humorous success The characters are broad but thoroughly amusing, and some of the comic situations are simply irresistible - especially the lighting ceremony (in which Clark attempts to show off the extensive Christmas light display on the house) and the runaway squirrel sequence.
There is something about `Christmas Vacation' that keeps me coming back; an unusual spark that never seems to die off. Perhaps the spark is ignited by Randy Quaid, who joins in the festivities as the grotesque slob cousin Eddie, a family man who owns a scrappy RV and a dog appropriately named Snot. Quaid, reprising the role from the original `Vacation', seems ready and willing to turn Cousin Eddy into the most utterly reprehensible - not to mention the most downright hilarious - member of anyone's family in recent memory. When he is explaining why the metal plate in his head had to be replaced, a sample bit of dialogue includes `every time the wife would turn on the microwave, I'd piss my pants and forget who I was for half-an-hour.' I don't know why, but each time I find Quaid simply uproarious, and marvel at how his timing derives some great deadpan humor out of Chase - who submits what could be his funniest screen performance. The comic spark behind Chevy's approach is certainly lit, and he even offers a believable mental breakdown toward the end of the film, when (SPOILER AHEAD) Clark opens his much anticipated Christmas bonus to find he's been enrolled in a jelly club.
Some of the shtick really don't work - namely, the constant misfortune of the snotty neighbors (played by Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Nicholas Guest). As he wrote the screenplay, there is also plenty of trademark John Hughes humor (Clark gets repeatedly smacked with boards in the attic, etc.). And yet, despite all of it's imperfections, I still find `Christmas Vacation' to be a delightful holiday treat -a chocolate-covered morsel of Yuletide comedy that seems to bring out the best in the season. Some people view this film as a holiday classic, ranking alongside `It's a Wonderful Life' and `Miracle on 34th Street'. But I wouldn't extend my positive critique quite that far. `Christmas Vacation' is something of a guilty pleasure - a guilty pleasure that I partake in each and every year.
(C) 1999, Jamey Hughton
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