Almost Christmas | Film review - Stickily sweet seasonal fare

Almost Christmas Mo'Nique Kimberly Elise Gabrielle Union

(Image credit: Quantrell D. Colbert)

Five days together? Oh joy.

All-black ensemble comedy Almost Christmas finds recently widowed grandfather Danny Glover anxiously welcoming home his four adult children, and their partners and children, for the first family Christmas since the death of his wife.

All too predictably, each member of the dysfunctional clan has issues of their own. And bickering sisters Gabrielle Union and Kimberly Elise are at daggers drawn from the off. But the ensuing crises and clashes are bland and unfunny, while the film’s underlying sentiments are as stickily sweet as the dead matriarch’s traditional sweet potato pie, which Glover spends the entire movie struggling to recreate.

Certificate 12A. Runtime 111 mins. Director David E Talbert

Almost Christmas debuts on Sky Cinema Premiere on Saturday 11 November. Available on DVD & Digital Download from Universal Pictures UK.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-mw-Rhm8OIw

A film critic for over 25 years, Jason admits the job can occasionally be glamorous – sitting on a film festival jury in Portugal; hanging out with Baz Luhrmann at the Chateau Marmont; chatting with Sigourney Weaver about The Archers – but he mostly spends his time in darkened rooms watching films. He’s also written theatre and opera reviews, two guide books on Rome, and competed in a race for Yachting World, whose great wheeze it was to send a seasick film critic to write about his time on the ocean waves. But Jason is happiest on dry land with a classic screwball comedy or Hitchcock thriller.