Four Christmases

This story of couple Kate and Brad (Reese Witherspoon, Vince Vaughn) — not married, might as well be — who, fogged in on December 25, put their planned Fiji frolic on hold to visit their four divorced parents in the course of a single day, doesn’t offer a single surprise within its scant 82 minutes, which feel like at least twice that. There’s plenty of happiness and cheer, and more than the occasional tear is dropped between shouting matches and withering stares. There was every reason to hope for more. Four Christmases was directed by Seth Gordon, whose 2007 The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters was a bittersweet, hilarious documentary in which a cocky mullet squares off against a sweet doofus over a Donkey Kong machine. And Vaughn and Witherspoon seemed as sure a thing as pancakes and bacon on Christmas morning. But even there, the pairing is off: He’s too much; she’s too little. The movie’s pace is lethargic; it desperately needs a laugh track. Only, the joke is terrible to begin with. Still, not as bad as Vaughn’s last movie: Fred Claus, last year’s holiday lump of coal.