Love the Coopers—The Coopers, and their extremely
First-World problems, being:
Dad (John Goodman) wants to leave mom (Diane Keaton) because
he’s sick of her putting the concerns of their grown kids ahead of their own
relationship. She’s talked him into sticking around for one more picturesque
family Christmas in their handsome suburban Pittsburgh home.
Meanwhile, Gramps (Alan Arkin) has bonded with a young diner
waitress (Amanda Seyfried) and now she’s planning to move away. Son (Ed Helms)
has lost his job, and is hiding it from his family. Daughter (Olivia Wilde),
dawdling in the Pittsburgh airport, meets a handsome young solider (Jake Lacy)
on his way to deployment and talks him into posing as her boyfriend for the
holiday in hopes of avoiding the disappointed, disapproving, worried looks of
her parents.
Gee, wouldn’t it be something if two of them actually fell
in love?
Middle-class whining about what a drag it is to spend time
with your family at the holidays is theme which the movies have pretty
thoroughly explored over the last few decades. Indeed, Keaton has already
starred in a similar ensemble comedy-drama, The Family Stone, back in 2005.
She’s one of the executive-producers of Love the Coopers, so she must like this
sort of thing, or at least like the sort of money it can make.
Directed by Jessie Nelson from a script by Steven Rogers
(which went into production under the better title The Most Wonderful Time),
Love the Coopers is slickly produced and more watchable than it really deserves
to be. Partly this is thanks to a Starbucks-compilation-CD-style soundtrack of
genteel holiday numbers, including Sting’s lovely version of “Soul Cake.”
Partly it’s because of the underrated winter beauty of Pittsburgh.
But mostly, as you might guess, it’s because of the ability of
that cast to engage, even with fairly blah material. Along with the above, by
the way, the ensemble includes June Squibb as a dotty old aunt, and Marisa
Tomei and Anthony Mackie as, respectively, Keaton’s shoplifting sister and the
cop stuck with taking her in. This promises to become the most interesting
strand—Mackie gives his role a little tension and sting, and he and Tomei have
a nice rapport—but it peters out without a real payoff.
There’s also narration, but both the (unmistakable) voice of
the famous speaker and the identity of the narrator seem meant to be a surprise
until the end credits.
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