Day 12. The Muppet Christmas Carol

By 1992, the Muppet Empire was going through a state of recession. Creator Jim Henson had died two years earlier, and I, of the X/Y-cusp Nintendo Generation, having grown up on TV and library screenings of the initial immortal Muppet trilogy (The Muppet Movie, The Great Muppet Caper, and The Muppets Take Manhattan), did not feel the need to return to those characters as a pre-teen. It wouldn't be until the '00s that people my age would become hopelessly obsessed with childhood nostalgia, making 2011's The Muppets a must-see event. 

The Muppet Christmas Carol, which barely dented the '92 holiday family film market next to Home Alone 2 and Disney's other big release Aladdin, has acquired a fan base over the years. Though it's another adaptation of Charles Dickens' yuletide standard, it does at least one interesting thing. The movie adds an imaginative boundary for the audience, who is used to pretending actors they know are in fact different characters on screen. In The Muppet Christmas Carol, voice actors play Muppets who are playing characters from Dickens. That's Steve Whitmire as Kermit the Frog as Bob Cratchit. That's Frank Oz as Miss Piggy as Emily Cratchit. For the most part, these characters are permitted to keep most of their defining Muppetness. 

Michael Caine as himself plays Ebenezer Scrooge. He's the heartless, greedy one-percenter amongst the Victorian poor, and can't stand their presence or Christmas cheer. Maybe if they didn't all sing a song with the lyric "There goes Mr. Humbug" whenever he walks past things would be different.

This is a sweet film, with a good spirit and a wisely conceived performance by Caine, who plays the part completely straight, the comic hijinks surrounding him only exacerbating his seriousness. The Muppets are reduced to supporting players in their own movie, and there was probably no way to escape that. Gonzo the Great and Rizzo the Rat get the bulk of the troupe's screen time, narrating the events in the roles of Charles Dickens and… his rat. 

I suspect children will really take to the film, but it must be said, it isn't stellar as either a Muppet movie or a Christmas Carol adaptation. The zaniness of the Muppets is tempered and so are Dickens' cold scares. The Muppet Christmas Carol finds a happy middle-ground for families. It's nice throughout, but refuses to veer far enough into the heartwarming and the heartbreaking. 

The Muppet Christmas Carol and The Meaning of Christmas

As the Paul Williams penned end-credits song informs us, "Wherever you find love, it feels like Christmas!" Scrooge is a non-believer, but his revelation is of the heart rather than of religious doctrine. Which is how it should be. We don't need the Muppets to become VeggieTales. 

Day 3. The Best Man Holiday

The Best Man Holiday is notable as a Christmas movie in two ways. One is standard, the other less so. 

It's familiar as a type. Writer/director Malcolm D. Lee has created an ensemble Christmas-piece in the vein of The Family Stone, This Christmas, and Nothing Like the Holidays where a diverse group of personalities learn to reconcile during a festive gathering. Catching up on the lives of friends introduced in 1999's The Best Man, The Best Man Holiday finds three couples (Taye Diggs and Sanaa Lathan, Harold Perrineau and Regina Hall, and Nia Long and Eddie Cibrian), plus a single man (Terrence Howard) and woman (Melissa De Sousa) spending Christmas at the mansion of another couple (Morris Chestnut and Monica Calhoun). In the intervening years, history and grudges have developed, and all of them are keeping secrets. 

Lee reworks, and improves slightly upon the reunion comedy of his 2008 Welcome Home, Roscoe Jenkins, in which big city Martin Lawrence competed with his countrified relatives in an obstacle course set to "Neutron Dance." This tense group feel the festive spirit by trying to open their hearts to old friends, and to be there to lend a helping hand, and I can't finish this sentence because I'm going to cry.

What's less typical is that The Best Man Holiday is a Christmas movie for grown-ups without being an asshole about it. Lee's warm interiors emphasize cozy merriment, and the tone of the comedy is sexy, not subversive. When it isn't driven by plot resolution, The Best Man Holiday operates as a slick Christmas ensemble piece--the sort of movie that's fun to hang out with, without worrying about a destination. 

Though Lee is more invested in the men than the women, everybody gets their time, and the viewer (in best Robert Altman fashion) is the one party guest privy to everyone's plans and covert alliances. I like that there's no villain, and no one's even villainized. When dirty-minded Quentin (Howard) texts Shelby (De Sousa) his dick pics, he hilariously processes the instant guilt of his action by praying for either forgiveness or reciprocation. The ideological differences between Lance (Chestnut) and Harper (Diggs) are handled with acceptance to both religion and atheism. 

The last half of the movie is suffocated in a barrage of catastrophe and catharsis. Lee may really hate loose ends, but in hating them this much, he eventually robs the film of its naturalism. It becomes less confident as it progresses, with actors' charms remaining the main defence once their characters have turned into story-robots.

Still, it's a damn good first hour! Though The Best Man Holiday doesn't indulge in Griswald yuletide traditions (there's nothing about putting up the lights, cutting down the tree, or feeling broke as hell when your Christmas bonus won't cover a new swimming pool), it's about acceptance and forgiveness. And I think that may have some relevance to Christmas as Linus originally defined it in the The Peanuts TV-special. 

Personal History

Malcolm D. Lee is a director I try to follow since he directed Roll Bounce, which was one of my favourite movies of 2005. He also directed Scary Movie V, which was one of the most confused movies of 2013. He is also Spike Lee's cousin, which is personal if you're Spike Lee. 

The Meaning of Christmas

The lesson here is that if your woman did some sexual things in her past you're not comfortable with, or if your man lost his job, or your friend had some ancient history with your fiancee, don't lock it inside and let it ruin Christmas and your feelings. Just communicate, and all the dirt will be clean. As long as everybody still likes New Edition.

Tomorrow: One Magic Christmas