The Perfect Holiday

“The Perfect Holiday” reasons just how exactly that film managed to pull Primetime ratings. It managed to do this, as the previous film was a Christmas film that’s been bombarded with cliché ever since, which aired on ABC family, if that aired instead of ABC family channel, it’s a safe bet that at churches across America they would rent it and even half the Christmas film, never mind it. For hushpuppies, cheeseburgers and lagers, Perfection found a much packed table, reason being that it has both Latifah and Mario Lopez in it, and as for the voodoo doll fans, they might be delighted to discover that both Lopez and Melissa Joan Hart made cameos in the film along with Lance Rivera.

The film “Perfect Holidays” is likely to be remembered as the other African American holiday movie that came out in 2007, the run up to “This Christmas”, which not only came out first but also got above average reviews from critics and was well received by viewers.

Lance Rivera directs “Holiday” from a screenplay that includes the collaboration of Marc Calixte, Nan Mauldin, Rivera, and Jeff Stein. The plot revolves around aspiring song writer Ben Armstrong (role played by Morris Chestnut). Armstrong is approached by a department store about taking on a part time job as Santa Clause. An eight year girl by the name of Emily (role played by Khail Bryant) approaches him and says that she only wants one thing for Christmas which is for someone to tell her mother, Nancy (role played by Gabrielle Union), that she is beautiful. She says so because she overhead her mother claiming that she wants a man who is beautiful to give her attention and walk away. Seeing an opportunity to help Emily, Ben decides to track down Nancy at the laundromat.

Believe it or not, this isn’t where Ben and Nancy meet cute. That comes a few minutes later, and it happens in a candy store. A few minutes after that, they are a couple. A few more minutes, they are in love. Meanwhile – and make no mistake, there are a lot of “meanwhile” in a film like this in which the demand for a busy plot is used to disguise the fact that it has no ideas – Ben does not wish to inform Nancy that he is a song writer, so he pretends to be a salesman of office supplies.

Meanwhile Part Deux: A song of his is snatched by Nancy’s unfaithful ex-husband who happens to be a big rap star, J-Jizzy Charlie Murphy, who is also in a tussle to gain custody of his kids so that he could make a TV Show featuring them. Meanwhile Part Trois: Nancy’s older son, John-John Malik Hammond does not want Ben around as he still believes that one day his parents will be back together and that causes him to not be able to see his father’s flaws. Therefore, Ben cannot allow Jizzy to find out he is dating his first wife, Ben must prevent Nancy from knowing that he is not only a song text writer but also sold a song to her ex husband, Ben must also win over to John-John with marriage proposal for Nancy. And many other meanwhile like this. And all these whys practically have simple answers that would come out if Ben were a normal person.

They all live happily ever after, as you might have guessed from the movie’s title, Christmas films tend to stick to the same cliched plot line and character scenarios. When it comes to the material, even if it seems dormant, it is almost a given that we react in a predictable manner because these clichés are practically immune to the Grinch. Movies tend to be at least intriguing and insightful considering their respective genres, but over the years many have lost their shine. One such film that lacks originality is “The Perfect Holiday,” even though it boasts of two great stars in the form of Chestnut and Union, and it is set around Christmas Eve, which is the most sought after occasion globally.

Nancy’s child Anton throws a fit, leading Hammond to depict one of the best scenes of the movie, while his grumpy character addresses Nancy as love. Samantha calls and dolls up with sunglasses in place which is where they say Love stands tall against their Christmas ads.

Queen Latifah finds herself reprising the role of the quasi-narrator and magic maker in the movie. In the movie, she appears in several different roles including a security guard, a hot dog vendor and as a homeless woman. Terrence Howard, who plays the main antagonist ‘Bah Humbug’, contributes even less. He only says around six words throughout the film and for reasons that are contextually very confusing. In the end, one could never blame him as he appears in the guise of a mouse, which in his defense shows his willingness to appear out of the box. In this way he wouldn’t have to stress his reputation coming out of this imperfect piece of work.

So will all of this get a lump in your throat and a tear in your eye? Yes! Everything multi folds all because of Christmas, and to our surprise, even the minor gifts exceed all expectations.

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