I love Christmas movies. I've grown up with every single one you can imagine, from conventional ones like Home Alone and The Santa Clause to more adult ones like Scrooged and Bad Santa. Even cheesy ones like Christmas With The Kranks (when you think about it, Tim Allen has been in a lot of them). So when I came to watch Love The Coopers, I thought it was going to be a cheesy one, especially since it stars Diane Keaton. I wasn't expecting a movie about divorce, unemployment, political differences, child abuse, sexuality and, least of all, a magic dog voiced by Steve Martin.
Charlotte Cooper is hoping to bring her large family together for a big happy Christmas. She wants this desperately because it will be the last Christmas she has before her and her husband Sam (John Goodman) get a divorce after forty years of marriage. Everyone of their relatives are living their own troubles. Charlotte's sister Emma (Marisa Tomei) gets arrested for shoplifting, her divorced son Hank (Ed Helms) is having financial troubles, her daughter Eleanor (Olivia Wilde) can't face her mother's disappointment and her father Bucky (Alan Arkin) is struggling to express his love for the much younger Ruby (Amanda Seyfried).
The drama outweighs the comedy heavily in this movie about a supposedly happy time of year. Some of the themes alluded to are quite obvious, such as Sam and Charlotte's divorce and Hank's redundancy, but others, like Ruby's abusive childhood, are a little harder to identify. The most heartbreaking part of the movie comes when Officer Percy (played by a hard faced Anthony Mackie), the officer who arrests Emma, reveals that he could never live up to the expectations of his mother, despite the fact that she is welcoming of his homosexuality.
This film has a lot of weird film techniques that I would not expect in one like this. Whip pans and crash zooms that you'd expect in some Paul Greengrass political thriller are used liberally and with almost every character's situation. I found the use of an extreme close-up on Olivia Wilde but not on the person she was talking to very unnerving, but I suppose that might be a personal taste issue.
As you'd expect from an ensemble film like this, everyone brings their best. The standout performances for me come from Amanda Seyfried, Timothée Chalamet, Anthony Mackie and June Squibb. All of these actors have a small parts, but they all make them their own roles. Especially June Squibb, who doesn't love her? Anthony Mackie is almost unrecognisable without his signature facial hair and Amanda Seyfried brings her character an underlying pain that I didn't even know she could pull off.
Despite all these deep and dark themes, the film does come together nicely at the end. It's definitely one worth watching if you like Christmas movies, but not really too much of a stretch for comedy fans.
The drama outweighs the comedy heavily in this movie about a supposedly happy time of year. Some of the themes alluded to are quite obvious, such as Sam and Charlotte's divorce and Hank's redundancy, but others, like Ruby's abusive childhood, are a little harder to identify. The most heartbreaking part of the movie comes when Officer Percy (played by a hard faced Anthony Mackie), the officer who arrests Emma, reveals that he could never live up to the expectations of his mother, despite the fact that she is welcoming of his homosexuality.
This film has a lot of weird film techniques that I would not expect in one like this. Whip pans and crash zooms that you'd expect in some Paul Greengrass political thriller are used liberally and with almost every character's situation. I found the use of an extreme close-up on Olivia Wilde but not on the person she was talking to very unnerving, but I suppose that might be a personal taste issue.
As you'd expect from an ensemble film like this, everyone brings their best. The standout performances for me come from Amanda Seyfried, Timothée Chalamet, Anthony Mackie and June Squibb. All of these actors have a small parts, but they all make them their own roles. Especially June Squibb, who doesn't love her? Anthony Mackie is almost unrecognisable without his signature facial hair and Amanda Seyfried brings her character an underlying pain that I didn't even know she could pull off.
Despite all these deep and dark themes, the film does come together nicely at the end. It's definitely one worth watching if you like Christmas movies, but not really too much of a stretch for comedy fans.
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