The holidays are a time for families to get together and celebrate the season. Of course getting large amounts of family members into one area can sometimes lead to problems as the close proximity leads to working on each other's nerves after a while. Christmas Vacation deals in those moments throughout the film and almost always works.
The movie is the third in the Vacation saga as after going to Wally World and Europe, Clark Griswold decides to have people come to his house to celebrate Christmas. We find the Griswolds on a trip to get a tree for their house and it is there where we see how this film will operate throughout. It has a plot- of sorts- but it is more of an excuse to set up sketch pieces and almost every single one of them hit. The tree trip goes horribly wrong over and over again. The Christmas lights on the house go horribly wrong. Both Clark and Ellen's parents come in for Christmas and that goes wrong. The aunt and uncle show up and that goes wrong. Sledding, holiday shopping, and the idea for the pool all go wrong. When things look like the worst, Eddie shows up and him and his family add another level of annoyance to Clark's perfect family Christmas.
What feels right about this film is that they do nail the way your relatives can get on your nerves. When you see people all the time their quirks get easier to focus on and eventually it is all you can notice. The scene where Ellen is trying to reassure Aubrey all the while frantically looking for a pack of cigarettes is a perfect example of this. She is projecting calm but her actions are telling a different story. The moment she lights up the cigarette her mom yells out, "Ellen, are you smoking again?" Ellen ends the scene by sniffing out the cigarette and splitting a head of lettuce with one forceful swing of a knife. The camera ends on that image and focuses for maybe an extra split second before moving to the next scene. It speaks volumes to the feelings that Ellen has about arrangements and underlies some annoyance with Clark. You can also see that Clark has second thoughts about his plans once the parents arrive and he says, "Well I'm gonna go park the cars and get the luggage, and well, I'll be outside for the season."
However, that is not why people watch this movie over and over again. It is the comedic pieces and there are plenty of them here. The film does a good job of balancing slapstick with more subtle humor, sometimes in the same scene. The aforementioned car trip to the tree begins with Clark engaging with another driver in a struggle on the road. It is a nice callback to the first Vacation movie where the lovely Christie Brinkley shook Clark from the redundancy of the road trip. Here Clark is happy and joyous and the actions of the other driver push him in the opposite direction. They crash into the parking lot at the tree place but then it leads to a small scene where Aubrey freezes and Clark tries to give some big speech about the holiday but instead his tongue is so frozen that it ends up coming out in a lisping mess.
Randy Quaid is great again in his role as the completely unhinged Cousin Eddie. It is a little troubling to watch in some ways now seeing as Quaid is really unhinged in real life. So perhaps he wasn't acting so much as playing himself. When he shows up here the anarchic nature of the situation takes off. He wears garish Christmas sweaters, drinks egg nog from a moose antler cup, and dumps the septic tank on his RV into the sewer leading to one the hilarious line, "Merry Christmas. Shitter was full." He does this all while standing in a bathrobe and wool hat in the middle of the street. Later, Edie causes the entire holiday to crash by kidnapping Clark's boss and bringing him and a bevy of cops to the home.
Chevy Chase and Beverly D'Angelo do well again in their roles as the leaders of the Griswold family. They play well off each other and actually feel like a married couple. He has big ideas and she smiles and goes along with them all the while quietly rolling her eyes. Even when she helps Clark get the lights going she lets him have the moment instead opting to enjoy the smile on her husband's face.
What helps this film out is that they have great supporting players up and down the cast sheet. Johnny Galecki and Juliette Lewis play the kids of the Griswold family and bring the right amount of love for their parents and mortification at their more bizarre antics. Doris Roberts and E.G. Marshall play Ellen's parents (And one of my favorite lines in the film comes from Marshall. On the front lawn when the lights don't work, he begins telling the kids how bad their father is in this and Lewis says, "He worked really hard grandpa." He responds with, "So do washing machines." I always loved that line in the film.) William Hickey pops in as Uncle Lewis. Julia Louis Dreyfuss and Brian Doyle Murray play supporting roles as well. The veteran cast of actors and good comedic actors make every line land and know how to play these situations to the hilt.
It's a movie I'm sure you've seen but it is one that is worth re-visiting year after year. In the spirit of the season I will close by saying:
"Merry Christmas, Merry Christmas, Merry Christmas, Merry Christmas, kiss my ass, kiss his ass, kiss your ass, Happy Hanukkah."
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