Christmas with the Kranks

Herald rating: **

Speaking of Christmas ... this one's based on a John Grisham novel, Skipping Christmas, but it's not what you'd expect from the master of blockbuster legal-conspiracy theory thrillers.

Tim Allen and Jamie Lee Curtis star - now, there's a big warning sign already - as Luther and Nora Krank, who live in a Chicago suburb with their daughter, Blair (Julie Gonzalo). Julie is going to Peru with the US Peace Corps.

Since this will be their first Christmas on their own, Luther suggests that the couple go on a Caribbean cruise instead of blowing $6000 to play their part in the street's highly competitive Christmas lights display.

But this is not Franklin Rd, where the residents turn on the lights as a gift to the kids and the city. When the neighbours hear that the Kranks are pulling the plug, the self-appointed street spokesman, Vic Frohmeyer (Dan Aykroyd), heads a delegation to force them to change their minds. The protest escalates. There are pickets on their front lawn. The newspaper enters the affray.

Abused and bemused, the couple hear from Julie in Peru: after two weeks she's engaged and she's bringing her fiance to meet the folks for Christmas. Which means that the Kranks will have to, hurriedly, arrange their traditional Christmas Eve party.

Well, well, well. Last week's vigilantes will turn around and help decorate the house, whip around and provide the feast ... and aw shucks, everybody loves good neighbours, huh?

In the right hands this might have been a black comedy or satire on suburban life in virtually any "western" nation, the pressure to conform to society's norms and what happens to those who dare to break step. Which is what Grisham intended. But Chris Columbus, director of Mrs Doubtfire and Home Alone, turns it into cheesy, brainless sit-com.

* DVD, Video rental September 8