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LOVE THE COOPERS

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(Another dysfunctional family)

The first Christmas movie of the year centers around the Coopers, yet another dysfunctional family, gathering at the family homestead for Christmas dinner. It takes over half of the movie for them to all get there, as we follow their journeys, and only a few minutes for the squabbles to begin.

Diane Keaton and John Goodman play the parents, ready to drop the divorce bomb on the family after 40 years of marriage. Son Hank (Ed Helms) is unemployed and going through a divorce. Daughter Emma (Marisa Tomei) is on her way to jail for shoplifting, trying to talk the cop (Anthony Mackie) out of charging her. Grandpa (Alan Arkin, always good) has convinced his favorite waitress (Amanda Seyfried) to join him for dinner, with some interesting if contrived results. All bring a lot of baggage to the table, making the movie a bit heavy-handed as they try in vain to deal with their strained relationships, loneliness and personal problems.

The salvation of the movie, which switches back and forth among the characters and their situations, is the awkward relationship that develops between liberal, free-spirited daughter Eleanor (Olivia Wilde) and Joe (Jake Lacey), a conservative Republican soldier she meets in an airport and convinces to come home with her and pretend to be her boyfriend. All this is brought together through a narrator who is surprisingly revealed at the end.

There are some bright spots in the movie, so if you are willing to sit through some of the low ones, you may enjoy it.

Rated PG-13, with some profanity and sex.

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