Surviving Christmas (2004)
Directed by Mike Mitchell
Wealthy executive Drew Latham has no close relationships and becomes nostalgic for his childhood home as Christmas approaches. When he visits the house and finds another family living there, he offers the residents a large sum of money to pretend they are his parents.
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What critics compared Surviving Christmas to
Josh Zuckerman (2004's " Surviving Christmas ") is an inviting, adorable presence as Ian, a young man who isn't keen on his virginal status but comes to realize he would rather share the experience with someone he genuinely cares for.
The character doesn't need to hate Dublin for the story to work, but it gives the screenwriters -- Deborah Kaplan and Harry Elfont, who also wrote "Josie and the Pussycats," "Can't Hardly Wait," and "Surviving Christmas" -- an excuse to tell us, later on, WHY he hates Dublin, which of course is that it's where a woman who broke his heart lives.
(Their collective output includes “Josie and the Pussycats,’’ “Shopgirl,’’ and “Surviving Christmas.’’)
The all-around carelessness of the project extends to the by-the-numbers script credited to Deborah Kaplan and Harry Elfont (the team behind the immortal "Made of Honor" and "Surviving Christmas"), reportedly with an anonymous assist from Oscar winner Simon Beaufoy ("Slumdog Millionaire," "The Full Monty").
What is undeniably the worst aspect of the movie, however, is that screenwriters Deborah Kaplan & Harry Elfont's (" Surviving Christmas," "Made of Honor") work is being treated as original when what they have done is a charmless hack of Powell and Pressburger's " I Know Where I'm Going" with a dash of "Local Hero's" (itself based on "I Know Where I'm Going") all purpose innkeeper thrown in.
If you’ve seen any of screenwriting duo Deborah Kaplan and Harry Elfont’s previous films, including Made of Honor and Surviving Christmas, you can anticipate pretty much every frame of its doggedly, almost abrasively cut-and-paste plot, from the opening montage of Boston real estate fluffer Anna’s (Adams) life, which runs with Swiss Watch precision — except for that dang doctor boyfriend (Adam Scott) who seems to love but won’t marry her — to her bitter humbling in the Irish countryside and wacky circumstantial bunk-up with an earthy chauffeur named Declan (Goode) who shows her the error of her tight-assed, materialistic American ways.