Ben’s Holiday Breakdown | “Christmas With The Kranks” is a Movie With The Laughs!
The Two Gay Geeks and our staff are in the Holiday Spirit, once again. We have so much holiday cheer to spread around and so many holiday movies to share with you, some are classics and others are off-beat and loosely associated with the holidays. We hope you enjoy our offerings and that your holiday season is safe, sane, and satisfying.
Luther and Nora Krank are having a sad Christmas this year. Their daughter Blair is heading to South America as part of the Peace Corps. Because the Kranks will be without their daughter for the first time in 23 years Luther has decided that he and Nora should go on a cruise. The catch is that they will be canceling Christmas. No party, invitations, or decorations. They are skipping it completely. What results is a neighborhood turning their resentment towards the Kranks for not participating in the Christmas spirit.
They’re upset because the Kranks won’t even be putting up their Frosty decoration on top of their house. Even when the neighbors say that they’ll take care of it Luther gives them a big fat no. Then, just when it seems like they’ll be able to coast into Christmas Day (the day they’re supposed to depart for their cruise) they get a call from Blair announcing that she’s coming home in time for the traditional Christmas Eve Party, and she’s bringing home her fiancé. Now Luther and Nora have to find a way to put together the type of Christmas that Blair is expecting, but they lack all of the food items as well as a Christmas Tree and they have to get everything all set up in time for Blair’s arrival.
Christmas With The Kranks is one of those comedies that shouldn’t work, and yet it does. Part of the joy is that it stars two amazing people, Tim Allen and Jaime Lee Curtis as Luther and Nora Krank. Allen was already established as the number one comedic actor in movies, and Jaime Lee Curtis has already found a second life in her career doing some amazing comedy in her own right, so having them cast as the Kranks was ideal. Of course you can’t have a movie with these two and not push for physical humor, ranging from the oddities of receiving Botox treatments to having many gallons of water just dumped on Luther.
What makes this movie so unusual is the subject matter. What the Kranks want to do is not exactly outlandish, and yet when they announce that they’re saving all of their money for the cruise the rest of the neighborhood goes a tad ape. When Nora’s friends ask, “What are we supposed to do?” when they learn that they are not having their annual party. Nora tells them that there other parties, but apparently that’s not good enough. It seems that celebrating Christmas revolves around the Kranks and no one is capable of having a good time on their own at Christmas without the Kranks.
This has always been the one story element that I’ve never liked. Nonetheless, the rest of this movie is absolutely charming and filled with laughter and good spirits. Allen and Curtis are at their peak here, and even the rest of the cast, despite their questionable motivations, come together to make Christmas With The Kranks a holiday favorite!!!
