In 2002, John Grisham deviated from his usual law-intensive court dramas and penned an atypical Christmas tale entitled, “Skipping Christmas”. “Skipping Christmas” plays out exactly as its title reads; the main characters plan to skip Christmas and take a cruise with the cash they usually “waste” on holiday expenditures. Apparently, those at Columbia Pictures saw potential in this nominal novel and decided to adapt the book into a major motion-picture. From that point on, the production team was entirely erroneous.
Not to belittle Grisham’s work, but "Skipping Christmas" is a mediocre Christmas story that basically only has a brisk page count (177) going for it. Its story is straightforward and pleasant to read around the holiday season, but for the most part this Christmas chronicle is congealed and congested with cynicism and utterly unfit for the big-screen.
Shortly after Miramax declared their early (October 2004) release of Surviving Christmas, another dull holiday piece, those at Columbia decided to change the title of Skipping Christmas to Christmas with the Kranks in order to avoid common confusion between the two opposing holiday-oriented pictures. Evidently, the best they could come up with was playing the alliteration card, and truthfully, the alliterated title is one of the most intelligent aspects of this lump of coal of a picture. The rest mainly accounts for stale scorn and ridiculously retarded attempts for laughs.
As far as the plot goes, the picture, for the most part, follows that of the book’s. It's that time of the year again for Luther Krank (Tim Allen) and his wife Nora (Jamie Lee Curtis) to step full swing into the holiday season. They need to buy a tree, a boatload of gifts, and a honey baked ham (among other things) for their yearly Christmas Eve bash. But this year, things will not be the same for the Krank household at Christmastime. Luther and Nora’s daughter Blair (Julie Gonzalo) is heading to Peru to follow the Peace Corps; sadly, she will be absent from all of the traditional holiday festivities. Nora is saddened by Blair’s departure, but Luther locates opportunity.
Luther proposes a plan to Nora to skip Christmas entirely—no tree, no gifts, and no party; instead—a cruise. At first, Nora is apprehensive, but later she agrees with Luther’s arrangement. They both boycott the Christmas season entirely, and refuse to spend a dime on any holiday-related lavishness; instead, they invest in swimwear, tanning, and botox. However, with the Kranks announcing their Yuletide prohibition, and making all fully aware of their plans, what will their neighbors think? Will Vic Frohmeyer (Dan Akroyd), the community leader, stop the Kranks’ passing over of December 25th and all that comes with? And, if Blair decides to come home for the holidays with a South American man named Enrique (Rene Lavan), how will Luther and Nora ever be able to cancel their cruise plans, whip up a good old-fashioned Krank Christmas for their daughter, and retain the Christmas spirit for themselves?
Article comments
1 - Chris Beaumont
I agree, this movie was absolutely horrid.
On a side note, Enrique was played by Rene Lavan. Erik Per Sullivan was one of the neighbor kids, he is also the youngest brother on Malcolm in the Middle.