Christmas Vacation




I don't know what to say, except it's Christmas and we're all in misery.

John Hughes decided he wanted to do a family Christmas movie, so he teamed up with Chevy Chase for another Vacation movie. In doing so he made a classic comedy that I think topped the first and certainly made up for the shoddy second movie. For some, this movie has become a lasting holiday tradition.

Clark W. Griswold (Chase) is a nerdy family man who has an average wife, Ellen (Beverly D'Angelo), and kids. This year, instead of packing the family station wagon, he decides he wants to stay home and have an old fashioned family Christmas with ... well, the family. This creates a perfect situation for Hughes to do his stuff. In the other vacation movies, it was Clark who was the center of the jokes, but even he appears almost normal compared to his parents and in-laws. Of course there is also Cousin Eddy (Randy Quaid) and his white trash family. Through it all, as the movie moves in episodic fashion, there is chaos and bedlam, mishaps and disasters, love and patriotism. As Clark tries to enjoy (or make it through) Christmas with his family, we are treated to some hearty laughs.

Quite simply, Christmas Vacation is hilarious from start to finish. Chevy Chase was never better as the childish but well meaning Clark Griswold. The supporting cast does excellent work here as well. The script is tailored perfectly to the horrors of spending quality time with the kind of family you love to hate. Just about everything that can go wrong does in Clark's perfect vacation.

The real strength in this movie is its crazy and stereotypical characters. From Clark's insensate boss to his uppity neighbors, they all play a funny part in Clark's tragedy of a holiday.

The periodic incidents are comical in every sense. Sometimes blunt or subtle, sometimes mild or vulgar, this is Hughes in perfect form. The meaning may not be very deep, but it is Christmas farce at its best. Definitely my favorite of the four Vacation movies, this is one holiday comedy worth seeing.



-The Gnome