The overcooked meet-the parents-and-have-a-terrible-time theme is multiplied by four in the new Seth Gordon film. Therefore, in preference to a thoroughly constructed catastrophic meeting with the usually bizarre mom and dad of your significant other, “Four Christmases” portrays four such encounters and does not deliver a single side-splitting moment. The more, the better becomes the less, the best and, thus, the pic stays far from perfection.

“Four Christmases” is an overloaded movie that gradually adds several elements, even when it lacks space. It can’t slow down and take it easy, as it wants to be a clowning-around comedy that delivers romantic giggles. However, it does not manage to amuse and is deficient in inventive pleasantry, since it revolves around a couple of dead beat jokes, which include a bunch of immature grown-ups and their mind-numbing quarrels.

Vince Vaughn and Reese Witherspoon make an odd-looking couple that inspires only one thing: mismatch. Not only do they look like Snow White and the seven dwarfs, piled one on top of the other, but they also display incompatible attitudes. The two actors may be able to deliver outstanding performances separately, but they are far from being a match made in heaven. While Vince Vaughn strolls around with a Mr. Hot smile on his face, Reese Witherspoon seems distant and cold, as if she wanted to get it over with quickly.

They fill the shoes of Brad and Kate, two people who form a couple and live together, but can’t stand the thought of marriage. They haven’t met the other’s folks yet and aren’t eager to make the big step either. Every Christmas they make up excuses in order to avoid winter tradition and travel to sunnier remote lands, far away from family drama, crazy siblings, wedding talks and table fights. However, they get in trouble when their flight to Fiji is cancelled and their relatives see them on TV offering an interview with regard to their ruined holiday. As their cover story has been destroyed, the two have no other choice but to spend Christmas with their parents, who are divorced.

Brad and Kate have to attend four parties, which are packed with peculiar guests and odd family members who waste no time in attacking one another.

“Four Christmases” would have been merrier if characters had connected and found chemistry between them. Instead of focusing on the shindigs’ grievous characters, filmmakers should have concentrated on the relationship between the lead personas, in an attempt to establish a magical bond that would have surely spiced up the clichéd plot.