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Four Christmases (Four Holidays in Australia
and New Zealand, Anywhere But Home in the Netherlands,
Norway,
United Arab Emirates and in South
Africa) is a Christmas-themed romantic comedy film about a couple who
go to see their divorced parents in one day. The film is produced by Spyglass Entertainment released by New Line Cinema on November 26, 2008, the day before Thanksgiving,
and distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures. It stars Vince
Vaughn and Academy Award winner Reese Witherspoon as a San Francisco, California,
couple pressured into visiting all four of their divorced parents'
homes on Christmas Day. Academy
Award winners Sissy Spacek, Mary Steenburgen, Robert
Duvall, and Jon Voight co-star with Jon
Favreau, country music singers Tim
McGraw and Dwight Yoakam, and Emmy
Award winner Kristin Chenoweth. The film is director Seth
Gordon's first studio feature
film.
The DVD and Blu-ray was released on November 24, 2009.
Orlando "Brad" McVie (Vince
Vaughn) and his girlfriend, Kate (Reese Witherspoon) are a happily unmarried and
childfree, upscale San Francisco couple whose respective households are
somewhat similar - both bearing divorced parents, warring siblings with
out-of-control kids and general awkward memories and simmering
resentments from the past, which they find too embarrassing to share
with each other. In an effort to avoid these families at Christmas time,
Brad and Kate pretend to be engaging in charitable work and escape to
exotic sun-spots, such as Fiji, to enjoy a relaxing Christmas there.
Unfortunately, in the third Christmas of their relationship, Brad and
Kate are trapped at San Francisco International
Airport by a fogbank that cancels every outbound flight. To make
matters worse, they are caught on camera and then interviewed by a CBS 5
news crew, revealing their whereabouts to the whole city and, worst of
all, their families.
With no escape, their lies foiled and no excuses to make, they find
themselves unable to avoid a Christmas at home with their respective
families. They first visit Brad's father (Robert
Duvall), then Kate's mother (Mary Steenburgen), and then Brad's mother (Sissy
Spacek) and, finally, Kate's father (Jon
Voight), thereby celebrating four Christmases in one day. As they
brace themselves for a marathon of homecomings, Brad and Kate expect the
worst, but are nevertheless unable to prepare themselves enough for
what they get. As the day progresses, each discover a new secret about
each other that both had been too embarrassed to tell each other about,
and soon find their relationship on the verge of collapse. While Brad
counts down the minutes to freedom, Kate finds herself looking at the
lives of Brad's and her own siblings and realises that she does
want a marriage and children of her own, the prospect of which frightens
Brad. Eventually, in the final visit of the day, at Kate's father's
house, Kate asks Brad to let her spend the visit on her own and claims
to her family that they had split up. Meanwhile, Brad spends some time
at his own father's house with just his father and realises how empty
his life is without a marriage and children, and that he loves Kate much
too much to leave her. He returns to her and they discuss the
possibilities of having a child and getting married. The two then embark
on their holiday in Fiji.
A year later on New Year's Day, the couple welcomes their first born
child, a baby girl, which they have spent the last nine months hiding
from their families. However, as their baby is the first born in the New
Year, a news crew comes to congratulate them - once again revealing
them, and their new baby to the whole city, and their families.
