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The Perfect Holiday

A fruitcake of a film

By TOM MEEK | December 12, 2007

2.5 Stars

VIDEO: Watch the trailer for The Perfect Holiday.

Struggling songwriter Benjamin (Morris Chestnut) works part-time as a mall Santa. One cute lap sitter, Emily (Khail Bryant), asks for a man for her mother, Nancy (Gabrielle Union), who’s recently been divorced from a hip-hop mogul (Charlie Murphy) — her ex is full of id and bears the moniker J-Jizzy (uh, Jay-Z?). Benjamin and Nancy connect, but Benjamin doesn’t know that J-Jizzy, whom he’s been pitching, is the ex, and that sets up the cross-threaded complications. Chestnut and Union cook up plenty of chemistry; Murphy and Faizon Love, as Benjamin’s sidekick, add attitude. Wasted, however, are Queen Latifah and Terrence Howard as the fanciful Greek chorus of “Mrs. Christmas” and “Bah Humbug.” The emotional fragility of kids caught up in divorce also gets short shrift, as director Lance Rivera can’t quite package this fruitcake of sentimentality and comedy. 96 minutes | Boston Common + Fresh Pond + Suburbs

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