Deck the Halls is a comedy about a nightmare neighbour at Christmas time whose antics quickly goad incredibly organised family man Steve Finch, played by Matthew Broderick, into festive warfare.
I didn’t really like the way that Finch was shown up for wanting his Christmasses to be fully planned out. I find much of the time comedy wants us to laugh at people for things which just come across as being perhaps a little bit mean spirited, but on the same token I do take on board that sometimes an extremely organised Christmas doesn’t really allow for new traditions to happen and isn’t always the most comfortable for others. I just know people who like to be very organised and it’s very important to them so I can sympathise with Broderick’s character on that issue.
I definitely wouldn’t want to live next door to Buddy Hall, played by Danny Devito, much less be married to him actually as his long suffering wife Tia Hall, played by Kristin Chenoweth puts up with a whole heap of a lot in this film! He’s stuck on a project where he wants to make his house visible from space so he’s continually adding lights to his already very well lit house.
The antics continue as the two men fight, and their wives eventually tell them to talk it out and sort themselves out instead of continuing to fight, after they engage in a sledding competition on a ride presumably meant for children. This is when they end up loudly and publicly acknowledging how attractive their own daughters are, accidentally of course, and have that awkward Dad moment.
This ends up making the two men fall out all over again after their momentary reconciliation and more havoc ensues, including putting their marriages on the line.
The film, of course, has a nice uplifting ending where the men learn their lesson and everything that took most of the film to build up to can somehow be redone in a matter of hours since a news crew wants to see the now, no longer illuminated, house.
To be honest this is one of those films that’s ok for a laugh but is very unrealistic, for example, if you could see the lights from space, you wouldn’t be able to stand outside of it without going blind. Nevertheless, I did enjoy it and would probably watch it again, it had some genuinely funny moments, but it wouldn’t be my first choice.
Rebbie Reviews 