Deck the Halls

Deck the Halls (2006)

HBO Broadcast, Seattle, WA

December 19, 2007

**1/2 / ****

by Scott Muoio

Deck the Halls, 2006’s requisite holiday movie, pits Matthew Broderick against Danny DeVito in a battle to the death over who is their neighborhood’s top Christmas enthusiast. Broderick is the established uptight town optometrist. His family wears matching Christmas sweaters for their annual holiday photo, the lights adorning his house are modest and tasteful, and he dons a skin suit for the yearly winter carnival speed skating competition. Broderick’s competition for Mister Christmas: his exact opposite, Danny DeVito. DeVito is the fast-talking, attention seeking car salesman and husband to a busty blonde (Kristin Chenowith) and father of twin nubiles (Kelly and Sabrina Aldridge) in low cut skirts. Newly obsessed with having his house visible from outer space with extravagant Christmas decorations, the Broderick/DeVito rivalry explodes from simple jealousy to perturbed venom, perturbed venom to bitter revenge, and bitter revenge to all-out war. Of course, you can easily predict where this comedy is going from the beginning, but unlike the usual dregs that make up contemporary holiday fare, at least Deck the Halls makes it fun getting there.

Sure, we’ve seen movies of this ilk before, many, many times, but Deck the Halls makes me laugh much more and much harder than most. Surprisingly, it is also clever with its off-handed pokes (a few jabs at Massachusetts made me giggle), ridiculous visuals (Broderick’s character walks us through his own Christmas tree farm on his tiny property), shocking absurdity (a “Who’s your daddy?” joke I totally didn’t see coming), and completely unnecessary running gags (a cop who may or may not have a women’s underwear obsession). Where the film really stands out, however, is its excellent acting. Everyone involved seems to be having a genuinely good time even if they probably are just doing it for the money, and the movie benefits from it immensely. With Broderick and DeVito, in particular hamming it up in roles they seem born to play, Deck the Halls morphs from typical silliness into a surprisingly very watchable film.

Deck the Halls is filled with numerous faults, as is always the case with holiday films. The snow is obviously fake, the story as basic and cliché as one expects, and the conclusion ridiculous camp, but for some strange miraculous reason Deck the Halls defies the odds as fun albeit, absurd entertainment. I can’t in good conscious recommend it, though I can admit it made me guffaw (especially Kal Penn’s cameo as a British accented news reporter) and my friend cry. Yes, cry. Now if that doesn’t say something about Deck the Halls, it certainly does about my friend.