Christmas Vacation (1989)

Yeah so I've somehow managed to avoid this all my life, despite its many annual cable tv airings. National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation sees the return of the Griswold family, headed by doofy businessman Clark (Chevy Chase), who dreams of hosting the perfect Christmas for his relatives. Along with his wife (Beverly D'Angelo), overramatic teenage daughter Audrey (Juliette Lewis), and plucky son Rusty (Johnny Galecki), Clark cuts down the "perfect" tree, suffers through noisy, abrasive parents and parents-in-law, bedecks the house with faulty innumerable lights, and even finds the perfect gift that he can't afford: a pool to be installed in the spring.

In the weeks leading up to Christmas he puts his best foot forward, hoping for his bonus to come in and hopeful that his relatives will somehow manage to get along, even when his eccentric, sort-of-gross brother-in-law Eddie (Randy Quaid) shows up with his wife, young kids, and dog. By the time the big day actually arrives, everyone is pretty much fed up with one another, and Clark's intense, blind optimism in the face of holiday disaster might just lead to a nervous breakdown.

This movie is a holiday tradition for lots of people I know, but without that sense of nostalgia and family-ness, I don't really see what the big deal is. Christmas Vacation (which, incidentally, involves very little actual "vacation") is funny enough, but nothing really sets it apart from similar comedies of the 80's and 90's. I found it a bit hit or miss, with some really memorable, funny moments along with some superfluous subplots (what was the point of Clark's fantasies about that saleswoman? Was this movie starving that much for some boobs?) and flat jokes. I could see myself liking it more as a kid, and growing up to continue loving it, so I'm guessing that's where some of its popularity comes from today.

It's got a good cast, with Chevy Chase carrying most of the comedic weight. He oscillates between being the goofiest or the cleverest person in the room, depending who's surrounding him, so his character is always funny but a little flaky. His immediate family doesn't really get to do much, but the older relatives are great and Randy Quaid, while sometimes too icky to be funny, is generally quite good, especially when he's playing off of Chase. I really enjoyed Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Nicholas Guest as the Griswolds' asshole yuppie neighbors, whose personalities are just as awful as their luck.

I liked Christmas Vacation, but I can't say I loved it as much as I felt I should. Maybe it's because I haven't seen the other Vacation movies, so I didn't really know anything about these characters. Or again, maybe it's because I never had a tradition of watching it as a kid. It's an enjoyable film with some really funny scenes and a good cast of characters, but I don't think I'd make a point of watching it annually.

3.5/5