This family works because it is not a Sooraj Barjatya-Karan Johar family. Nan! No one's sweet, no niceness exchanged, no sacrifice overplayed; everybody's just normal, nasty and wary of outsiders.
And this film works because of Sarah Jessica Parker. As the tight-bunned, high-heeled, ambitious, overworked career woman who dreams of successfully doing the tightrope between the boardroom and the family hearth, she pitches in a winsome portrayal. One which is untidy, awkward, out-of-con-trol and yet easy to identify with. Of course, all she needs to do is let her hair down, get drunk and stop trying to have all the right answers all the time. But the hostile family of her fiancee (Dermot) doesn't make it easy for her. Not even when she tries desperately to blend in with them on Christmas, complete with Christmas presents, a Christmas breakfast and loads of goodwill which somehow boomerangs, courtesy the mean sister-in-law, the possessive mother-in-law (Dianne Keaton) and the confused fiance. Yup! He's really confused because he doesn't know whose finger should he slip the ring on: the frazzled woman he has brought home or her chilled-out sister (Claire Danes) who joins them.
A quirky family drama, this one's watchable despite the fact that Christmas and the season of family values and goodwill hunting is long over.