This Christmas

Dir: Preston A. Whitmore II

2007

*

I disliked Preston A. Whitmore II's This Christmas for various different reasons but I think what I liked about it least was the fact that it didn't feel anything like a Christmas movie. Now this isn't always such a bad thing, however, sometimes when a 'family' film is deemed so bad by a studio or production company, it is often given a Christmas title and churned out in December. I don't think This Christmas was mean as anything other than a Christmas movie, so it's almost worst if that makes any sense at all. If it doesn't then I'm sorry, it is probably due to having my delicate brain cells subjected to one of the worst films I have ever seen. There's nothing wrong with the direction, the acting or the editing, the music is nice and overall it looks good. It is the outrageously bad script that stinks to high heaven, the fact that the characters have stereotyped themselves and that the over message of godliness is ruined by sex and violence. To tackle the biggest elephant in the room, This Christmas is a Black Christmas film. About time too but do Black viewers want to be represented this way? Christmas movies are a whitewash, it's about time everyone was represented fairly but every single racial stereotype is here on show, and it is black people who are responsible. It's unbelievable really. The men of the family are either students of the Black Panther movement, criminals, are cheating on their wives or have secret white girlfriends. One of them even pulls out a gun within the first 30 minutes. The women are bitchy, stuck up, partake in one night stands (on Christmas Eve?) and are emotionally unstable. One of the female characters drives their husband's car in LA's concrete river, spills oil on the bathroom floor to make him slip and beats him viciously with a leather belt. This is celebrated during Christmas' meal. All the while the family go to church, pray to God and do everything in the name of their beloved mother. These are terrible, terrible people. It is dreadfully frustrating when black people aren't represented enough in film and then they themselves produce this nonsense. I get that families argue during the festive season, I really, really do, but this film is one huge embarrassing exaggeration. If I was black I'd be outraged. I'm not black but I'm outraged. I guess that's Christmas films for you though, a real shame as there are some great actors in the cast and all are wasted on this poor excuse of a family festive film.