I saw Christmas with the Kranks at an early morning show. Before coming back to write my review, I decided to run a few errands. When I got in, I had almost forgotten that I had seen Christmas with the Kranks less than two hours before. I guess that just about sums up this adaptation of John Grisham's novel Skipping Christmas (one of his few forays outside of the legal thriller genre). It's by and large, a forgettable flick.

Luther and Nora Krank (Tim Allen and Jamie Lee Curtis) face the lonely reality of Christmas without their only child, Blair (Julie Gonzalo), who has gone off to Peru as part of the Peace Corps. Luther has the radical idea that the couple should skip the traditional costly Christmas celebration and take a Caribbean cruise instead. Only they can't just bypass Christmas Day, they must boycott the entire season: the Christmas cards, annual Christmas Eve party, the tree, the lights, the whole thing. This decision doesn't sit too well with the neighbors who celebrate the season with all the enthusiasm and organization of the Stepford wives. Led by Vic Frohmeyer, played by Dan Aykroyd with a militaristic buzz cut that fits his character, the neighbors launch a campaign to force some Christmas cheer down the Kranks throats whether they like it or not! Then, the day before Christmas, Blair announces that she's coming home with her new Peruvian fiancé. The Kranks and the neighbors have a matter of hours to get the Kranks ready for a picture perfect homecoming for their daughter.

Christmas with the Kranks has its moments - a scene with a bikini and Speedo clad Curtis and Allen comes to mind - but overall it's Christmas spirit doesn't ring true. They spend 2/3's of the movie trying to avoid the trappings of Christmas and the maniacal neighbors that would force it upon them. Then, they give in to all the very things they were trying to avoid and they fall in line with the neighbors who despised them just moments before.  

It seems like every year several Christmas movies come out with hopes of becoming the next 'Christmas Classic' (It's a Wonderful Life, Miracle on 34th Street or more recently Christmas Vacation and A Christmas Story or possibly even Bad Santa). Christmas With the Kranks is a harmless Christmas movie but it falls way short of the Christmas Classic. Having said that, it's much better than Surviving Christmas.