Ah, well.
Note to self: Trying to be productive during the chaos of the holidays is an exercise in futility.
But on the other hand, thinking about just how crazy the holidays were puts everything in perspective. Because honestly, at least I can be thankful I'm not a member of the Griswold family. Compared to their Christmas, mine looks like a Zen Relaxation Retreat or something.
Note to self: Trying to be productive during the chaos of the holidays is an exercise in futility.
But on the other hand, thinking about just how crazy the holidays were puts everything in perspective. Because honestly, at least I can be thankful I'm not a member of the Griswold family. Compared to their Christmas, mine looks like a Zen Relaxation Retreat or something.
For at least the last ten years, watching National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation on Christmas Eve has been a tradition for my family. By some chance of fate, it turns out that it was a tradition in my husband's family as well. This year was our first Christmas in our own home together, and we continue on the tradition. I even bought the moose mugs!
From 1989, this Chevy Chase movie became a classic holiday film for a number of reasons. Though it's not without issues, I'm willing to forgive them for the sake of the holiday. Christmas Vacation was the third in the National Lampoon Vacation series, and many of the cast members from the original two films return for the Griswold family holiday catastrophe. Chevy Chase is the family patriarch Clark Griswold, Beverly D'Angelo (American History X) is the ever patient wife Ellen, Juliette Lewis (What's Eating Gilbert Grape) plays Audrey Griswold, and Johnny Galecki (Roseanne, The Big Bang Theory) plays young Rusty Griswold.
(Sidebar: I've seen this movie a million times. When I found out Johnny Galecki was little twelve year old Rusty I nearly had a heart attack. It just does not compute. We're talking Pre-Roseanne Galecki. He had that sarcastic eye roll down even at a young age.)
Unlike the first two Vacation movies, the Griswold family stays home for the holidays and their family comes to them. Both sets of grandparents, a great aunt and uncle, and crazy Cousin Eddie and his family all descend on the Griswold house. Eddie is portrayed by Randy Quaid if that helps you complete a mental image of pure insanity and chaos.
It was only recently that I discovered that Christmas Vacation was written by John Hughes. It is a movie with a pedigree in that regard. The movie is hilarious, and the humor is classic Hughes. And Chevy Chase. Clark Griswold has high expectations for his family's Christmas, expectations that stem from his childhood experiences. The lights on his house must be perfect (all 25,000 of them), the tree must be perfect, the presents... every little detail needs to live up to the memories he has. Over the course of the film, through various means he has to face the reality that he can't relive those Christmas memories. Even though I don't want to ascribe too much social resonance to it, it's an important thing to remember around the holidays.
We all have those Christmas memories that we want to recreate each year. When we were younger, things seemed more perfect around Christmas. At least in retrospect. Even if things weren't perfect then, we only remember the best parts. Part of growing up is remembering the reality. We can remember old holidays, but if we dwell on them so much that it ruins our present ones, it's not worth it. Keeping family traditions alive is one thing, but creating new ones and new memories is just as, if not more, important.
...okay. Now that was just holiday schmoop. I love the movie, it's a holiday classic for my family, but now I'm going to get just a teensy bit critical. Just for a moment. And then you can go back to trolling facebook or twitter or whatever else you were doing.
Let me make something clear: I trust John Hughes as a writer. Confer: Home Alone, Beethoven, Uncle Buck, The Breakfast Club, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Pretty in Pink, Sixteen Candles, and Weird Science. The man knows what he is doing. However, there are a few things in the movie that sort of fell short of expectations. (Okay, maybe I know how Clark feels, but I'm not going to go apeshit about it.) There are certain scenes that don't seem to fit the pace of the rest of the movie, and actually bring the film to a grinding halt. The one that comes most to mind is that of Clark being stuck in the attic watching old films of family holidays past. From a writing standpoint, this was all information that could have been conveyed in interaction with his parents, who are in fact present at the house. Watching Clark watch old movies to get information on Clark's motivation... well, it bores me, and it rings of lazy writing.
The other element that irks me as a writer is the in-laws. Comments are made before the parents arrive that the in-laws don't get along with each other, but we never really see that. They are introduced but then just sort of remain in the background for the rest of the film, occasionally making snarky and rude comments. More focus falls on Cousin Eddie, and he doesn't arrive until at least half way into the movie.
But I can't even pin it all on Hughes. It could just as well be a directorial issue. Christmas Vacation was the directorial debut of Jeremiah S. Chechik. At certain points the movie just seems to run long, too long after a joke has been played out. Any number of the issues could fall on writer or director.
Issues aside, I love this film. It's a classic. I'll still watch it every year, because let's face it: Watching the Griswold Family Christmas slowly implode makes our own holidays seem so much more stress free.
