Page 60 - ATA 13 NOV 2015

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PEOPLE & ARTSFriday 13 November 2015
Review: ‘Love the Coopers’ is a moving, starry holiday pic
This photo provided by CBS Films and Lionsgate shows, Diane LINDSEY BAHR
Keaton, left, as Charlotte, and John Goodman as Sam, in “Love AP Film Writer
the Coopers,” released by CBS Films and Lionsgate. The movie “Love the Coopers” is
opens in U.S. theaters on Nov. 13, 2015. pretty formulaic as far as
Christmas dramedies go,
(Suzanne Tenner/CBS Films/Lionsgate via AP) but there are always going
to be those movies that just they’re not trying to be,
get to you — despite, per-
haps, your best judgment.
Modern holiday movies,
with their aggressively un-
happy families and sani-
tized Hallmark sentimental-
ity, occupy an interesting
space in entertainment.
Big, starry ensemble casts
assemble to fight and
laugh and cry and realize
something profound about
life, love and the season
of giving with a backdrop
of magazine perfect inte-
riors, idyllic snowfall and a Christmas Eve dinner at
soundtrack of perfectly cu-
rated carols.
They’re not high art and
either. Their predictabil-
ity can be comforting and
grating at the same time,
especially when most of
these stories spend so
much time indulging in
the discontentedness of its
well-off characters.
In “Love the Coopers,”
from director Jessie Nelson
(“I Am Sam”), four genera-
tions of an upper middle
class family go about their
day separately before
gathering for their annual
the home of Sam (John
Goodman) and Charlotte
(Diane Keaton). Most are
dreading it.
Sam and Charlotte are
putting on one last show
before deciding to an-
nounce their separation.
Their daughter, Eleanor
(Olivia Wilde), is drinking
the hours away in the air-
port with a stranger (Jake
Lacy) to minimize her time
at home. Their son, Hank
(Ed Helms), is trying to hide
the fact that he doesn’t
have a job.q