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Avg. Critic Score: 63 out of 100 Generally favorable reviews Metascore® based on all critic reviews
Information for Parents:
13 Iffy for 13+
Read Common Sense Media review

Critic scores range from 0 to 100, with higher scores indicating more favorable reviews.

  • 75
    San Francisco Chronicle |

    It's warm, witty and alive, with a fantastic cast and a belief in its characters that transcends its formulaic tendencies. Read full review

  • 75
    Philadelphia Inquirer | Carrie Rickey

    At the multiplex where so many holiday movies feel regifted, This Christmas is a gift. Read full review

  • 75
    Chicago Sun-Times | Roger Ebert

    What's surprising is how well Whitmore, the director, manages to direct traffic. He's got one crisis cooling, another problem exploding, a third dilemma gathering steam and people exchanging significant looks about secrets still not introduced. It's sort of a screwball-comedy effect, but with a heart. Read full review

  • 75
    Entertainment Weekly | Lisa Schwarzbaum

    Everyone in this madly good-looking clan has got soapy problems as befits an aspirational, say-amen holiday movie. Read full review

  • 70
    Variety |

    A rare holiday treat, a package that's both thoughtfully selected and sure to please its intended recipients. Read full review

  • 70
    Washington Post | Stephen Hunter

    The result is a big, gushy, emotional, secret-driven, family-obsessive casserole, perhaps facile in some of its resolutions, but so full of good heart and love -- the real kind, which is scratchy, awkward, difficult to express and doesn't conquer all but just some -- that the movie is difficult to resist. Read full review

  • 63
    USA Today | Claudia Puig

    Enjoyable enough. Though like some holiday fare, it doesn't quite stay with you. Read full review

  • 63
    Boston Globe | Wesley Morris

    One of those overstaffed, overstuffed "when do we eat?" holiday dramedies. Call it a double-extra-strength episode of "Soul Food." Read full review

  • 60
    The Hollywood Reporter | Kirk Honeycutt

    Writer-director Preston A. Whitmore II throws enough soap opera for an entire TV season into a story that nearly -- but not quite -- sinks from the weight of all these implausible events. Animated acting and the sheer chaos of this squabbling family give the film a comic buoyancy. Read full review

  • 60
    The New York Times | Laura Kern

    Boisterous and bittersweet, the film is not dull, but it does feel hopelessly overstuffed, with scant time to devote to any one story line. Read full review

View more reviews for This Christmas on Metacritic

Information for Parents
Common Sense Media says Iffy for 13+ Family holiday dramedy has some iffy content.
What Parents Need to Know Parents need to know that this holiday-themed dramedy includes some mild jokes about sex and drinking, as well as some questionable behavior. The movie's focus is on the bonds among adult siblings and their long-suffering, sometimes narrow-minded mother. Sexual content includes kissing, staying overnight with a new boyfriend, flirting, and cheating. On the violence side, thugs beat up a man who owes them money, and guns are used threateningly in a few scenes. Language includes "s--t," "damn," and "hell." One character smokes several times; characters also drink in bars and during family conflicts.
  • Families can talk about how movies tend to portray family holiday gatherings. Do you think the frequent tension and conflict (even when played for laughs) is realistic? What are holiday celebrations like in your family? Why do you think the characters in the movie so often resort to lying and keeping secrets? Does it help solve any of their problems?
The good stuff
  • message true0 Positive messages: Family tensions related to ongoing competition and resentments; cheating husband; people scheme to gain access to family property; minor and major lies, arguments, and disloyalties; eventual reconciliations.
What to watch for
  • violence false3 Violence: Mild, comic, and insinuated. Quentin is chased by two thugs and jumps off a fire escape. At a bar, Claude pulls out a gun to threaten a bully, causing a panic; he's later arrested by military police. Thugs catch up with Q and punch him, hard, repeatedly. Lisa and Kelli fight in the rain (pushing and hitting). Woman drives her cheating husband's car off a waterway. Joe threatens thugs with a gun; they back off. Wife hits cheating husband with a belt (he slips on an oil-covered floor; the scene seems comic, but it's tense, too).
  • sex false3 Sex: Lisa wears just bra and panties, hoping to seduce her husband. Occasional cleavage displays. Some romantic kissing between couples. Kelli has a vibrator, which her mother acknowledges. Mel and boyfriend hide in closet to kiss and initiate sex (nothing explicit). At a bar, Q and Claude discuss "hotties." After flirting at a bar, Kelli goes home with Gerald and sneaks home the next morning. Talk of protection, jokes revolving around the word "ho." Some secret relationships and cheating. Husband shown in hotel room with lover (nothing explicit; she kisses him). Malcolm emerges from shower with towel. Vaguely sexy/comic dancing under end credits.
  • language false3 Language: Language includes occasional uses of "s--t," "damn," "hell," "ass," "bitch slap," and "son of a bitch."
  • consumerism false3 Consumerism: No kid-oriented fare, but lots of products, both named and pictured: Nikon camera, Rolls Royce, Cadillac Escalade, BMW, Canada Dry ginger ale, Rolling Rock beer, Harley Davidson, Jeep Cherokee, Staples Center.
  • drugsalcoholtobacco false3 Drinking, drugs and smoking: Quentin smokes cigarettes in several scenes; various characters drink (wine, beer, liquor) in several scenes, both at bars and at home. A couple of comic conversations about drinking.
An independent nonprofit dedicated to providing families the information they need to help kids thrive in a world of media and technology. © Common Sense Media Inc. 2010. All rights reserved.

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