THE urban dramedy “This Christmas” is so full of solid performances and appealing characters that I wished writer/director/producer Preston Whitmore (“The Walking Dead”) had considered the dictum “less is more.”
For starters, the solidly middle-class suburban Los Angeles family gathered for a holiday reunion is unwrapping not only presents but more secrets than in a season of Eugene O’Neill:
– Matriarch M’Dere (Loretta Devine) is concealing a divorce from the jazz musician who left the family long ago, and some of her all-grown children aren’t even aware that she’s been sharing the sprawling family home with her longtime boyfriend Joe (Delroy Lindo).
– Marine Claude (Columbus Short) is away without leave and secretly married to a white woman (Jessica Stroup) who, unbeknownst even to him, is pregnant.
– Oldest daughter Lisa (Regina King) is being cheated upon by her snobbish husband (Laz Alonso), who is pressuring her to get the siblings to sell the family business and home.
– Oldest son Quentin (Idris Elba), a long-absent traveling musician who detests Joe, is secretly deeply in debt to a pair of bookies.
– Youngest sibling Baby (Chris Brown) is hiding from M’Dere the distressing fact that he has chosen to follow Quentin and their father into a musical career.
There are yet two more sisters with romantic issues, workaholic businesswoman Kelli (Sharon Leal) and college student Mel (Lauren London).
It falls largely to Joe to resolve most of these complications, and this provides an unusually rewarding role for the veteran Lindo who gives a beautifully shaded performance.
Still, this is a flick as overstuffed with plot as a Thanksgiving turkey, plus two musical numbers and a very lengthy dance sequence featuring the entire cast that precedes the closing credits.
The slickly produced “This Christmas” is well-directed and not without abundant charms. But at two full hours it can feel as exhausting as a holiday dinner with your own family.
THIS CHRISTMAS
Better than Tyler Perry.
Running time: 117 minutes. Rated PG-13 (sexual humor, brief violence). At the Union Square, the Harlem USA, the 84th Street, others.