"'Kranks' Borrows Christmas Motifs, Delights"

This year's holiday season has brought a new Christmas comedy to the table for families and kids everywhere to enjoy. Using a barrage of Christmas motifs and themes, "Christmas With the Kranks" combines the cheer of Christmas spirit, blatantly obvious comedic mishaps sure to make any kid laugh, and a plethora of intelligent and well-constructed adult humor.

In essence, the film not only touches on the very features that define the holiday tradition, but portrays a relationship between the movie and what a particular family holiday gathering can become. "Christmas With the Kranks" has all the makings of "Home Alone," only this time the child is a college girl coming home from the Peace Corps instead of an 8-year-old brat.

With a perfectly formulated musical score by John Debney, the movie's peak comedic moments are intensified with orchestral pointers and Christmas ballads that holiday fans all know and love. The character of Luther, played by Tim Allen ("The Santa Clause"), takes on the role of a Grinch, as well as a Scrooge, although the audience tends to sympathize when his simple Christmas wish gets pulled right out from under him.

With the daughter leaving home before Christmas to join the Peace Corps, not to return until the following year, Luther and his wife Nora, played by Jamie Lee Curtis ("True Lies"), decide to skip Christmas altogether and go on a Caribbean cruise. The misleading scene hints at the stereotype of a wife and husband having a scheduled day for intimacy. The humorous aspect within this scene lies in the misunderstanding between the two of them.

The plot devised by Luther and Nora is soon discovered by their surrounding community, whose sole purpose in life is to celebrate Christmas, and when they are confronted by local community 'nose,' Vic Frohmeyer, played by Dan Aykroyd ("Blues Brothers"), they embark on an array of harassments and neighborly disputes.

Luther, having turned down all his normal donations and purchases, leaves the entire community portraying him as the evil characters associated with Christmas. There are a few specific scenes that deliberately imply these messages through repetitive scenarios only adults will get.

One of the more humorous scenes involves the new form of "sun" bathing, portrayed in the film when the Kranks go to a tanning bed to get ready for the trip. The promise of artificial sun to help tan the skin is most certainly mocked in this scene, when the girl at the desk greets them with a glowing radioactive orange tone, and big white circles around her eyes.

The next scene mocks the new forms of skin improvement that are available these days, when Luther shows up to meet his wife after having received a Botox shot, one of the funniest sections of the film.

Dan Aykroyd's role in the film is, as usual for the Saturday Night Live alumnus, one of the funnier characters. There are dual peripheral plots within the script because the movie assuredly meant to make the audience laugh, but at the same time, it beautifully promotes the spirit of Christmas, and all the benefits of the holiday season. Some of the major themes are family and friends, giving and sharing and laughing as integral parts of the holiday season.

With their departure day quickly approaching and the promise of freedom from their psychotic neighbors, a phone call from their daughter Blair reveals to them that she has decided to come home, with her new boyfriend, and expects everything to be as it always is on Christmas.

Almost expected from the beginning, but certainly necessary, this twist throws the film into hyper-speed as the neighbors come together to help "The Kranks" set up for Blair with only a couple of hours until her arrival.

Some of the major plot points come out during this section as the clock is ticking. The race for items at the supermarket, hanging up the lights, the typical forms and functions of every holiday season are conjoined with a variety of themes from about six other Christmas movies.

"Christmas With the Kranks" is certainly meant to be fun for families and children reluctant to swing into the holiday season. A couple looking for a cute film to cuddle to would have a delightful time.