Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point Parent Guide

It’s Christmas Eve and Kathleen and Lenny (Maria Dizzia and Ben Shenkman) are heading to her family home for the holidays, two kids in tow. Querulous and self-absorbed, teenage daughter Emily (Matilda Fleming) snarks at her mother en route, but is soon swept up in the festive chaos generated by four generations of an exuberant Italian family

If you’re looking for a story about Emily, Kathleen, or indeed any other member of the clan, don’t hold your breath. This isn’t a film with fully fleshed out storylines or characters. Family members appear, have a moment of conversation or action, and then recede into the background. Occasionally, there are the beginnings of a plot: an adult announces that he and his wife can no longer care for their aging mother and there is a debate about her care; teenagers get together and have make-out sessions in cars; police officers have a “hypothetical” discussion about their feelings. But as soon as a plot looks like it might take root, the scene shifts and the storyline disappears in the mist, never to return.

Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point is less a feature-length story than a collection of vignettes, all compiled to create a deep sense of nostalgia. As a fine-grained look at one family’s Christmas, this movie succeeds. The cameras meticulously record every detail of the family home, from the artwork in the old-fashioned bathroom, to the knick-knacks atop the piano, to the giant bowl of M&Ms. Family activities, from table games to a trip to the firefighters’ Santa parade to the late-night walk, are faithfully depicted and imbued with a sense of long tradition. Watching this film feels like you’re viewing a memory video made for someone’s family. I’m not sure if any of the screenwriters or producers have pillaged their family stories for the script, but the movie feels grounded in reality and saturated in wistful remembrance. It simply fails to provide a reason why anyone who isn’t part of the family would want to sit through all 106 minutes.

If you do, in fact, wish to watch this production, you can be assured that the PG-13 rating is accurate. There’s a bit of profanity, plenty of smoking and drinking (including intoxication), minor violence, and scenes of clothed teenagers making out. The biggest problem here isn’t the content; it’s the boredom. I kept zoning out and had to keep rewinding the movie to catch what I had missed. Frankly, with all the magical Christmas movies out there, I recommend giving this one a miss and tuning into one of the classics.