Surviving Christmas Page #2

Synopsis: It's the Christmas season. Wealthy Chicago ad executive Drew Latham has long avoided the family traditions of Christmas, but has dreaded being alone on the actual day. So when his tropical Christmas vacation with girlfriend Missy Vangilder falls through with Missy breaking up with him in the process, Drew, in going through some self-therapy, decides what he really needs is to relive the memorable Christmases from his childhood, which includes spending time with his parents and younger brother. As that is not possible, he decides to rent a family, namely ones he's never met before, the Valcos - husband and wife Tom and Christine and their teenaged son Brian - who now live in Drew's childhood home in suburban Chicago. Tom initially wants nothing to do with Drew until an exorbitant sum of money is involved, all written in a contract which expires at the end of Christmas day. What Drew is initially unaware of, or what he chooses to remain ignorant about, is that the Valcos are going throug
Genre: Comedy, Romance
Director(s): Mike Mitchell
Production: Dreamworks
  2 wins & 5 nominations.
 
IMDB:
5.4
Metacritic:
19
Rotten Tomatoes:
7%
PG-13
Year:
2004
91 min
$11,198,345
Website
198 Views


How's the $ 72.50 comin'?

Good. It's comin' good.

Keep the meter running.

- Almost out of salami.

- No.

Well, thank you for telling me.

- I don't wanna run out, that's all.

- God forbid.

- Did Brian eat?

- I don't know.

Get down here

and eat your dinner.

- I'm not hungry!

- Yeah, you are!

Stop yelling at me.

I'm not yelling at you.

Brian!

Brian!

Get down here please, so your father

can stop not yelling at me!

I'm busy!

We shouldn't have put

the computer in his room.

He's gonna spend

all his time there.

Oh, Tom.

Welcome to the future, dear.

He's advancing his skills.

One day that computer's

gonna get our baby a good job.

Trust me. What he's doin',

nobody's gonna pay for,

'cause if they did,

I'd have retired at 17.

- What?

- There's a guy out there.

Who the hell is that?

All right. Alone on Christmas.

I can do this.

I rid myself

of all my grievances.

Be gone, grievances.

What the...

I forgive you.

Holy Moly. This joker.

What are the neighbors gonna think?

Unless they want to get hit, they

shouldn't be burning crap in my yard.

Is he still breathing?

Dear God, Tom.

You've killed the man.

Oh, sh*t! He's still alive!

Hello.

My name is Drew Latham.

I grew up in this house.

That's why you came back and

tried to burn it down, Pyroboy?

- Brian, call the cops.

- Oh, no, no, no!

That won't be necessary. That's fine.

I was just outside burning,

someone told me to burn

a list of my grievances

outside of the home of my birth

to help me with loneliness issues.

- So, it's all fine.

- Oh.

Any-hoo, apologies

and I'm gonna go.

Would you mind terribly

if I took a look-see around the house?

- I'll give you a tour.

- Oh, thank you.

Hold on.

- You got any more matches?

- No. No, no, no.

Are we done with all that?

Yes. The burning. Yes.

It's completely done.

I'm actually better.

I'm watching you.

Wow. I can't believe it!

This is amazing!

It's exactly how I remember it.

- You mean it was always a shithole?

- No. No, it's great.

Did you hear that?

That stair squeaked.

Do you know what we

used to call that squeaky stair?

"The squeaky stair. "

Wow. My old room.

My God.

Hey, look at that!

I can touch the ceiling.

It's much smaller than I remember it.

Did you do something?

Yeah. We had it reduced.

Cost a lot, but yeah,

I think it was...

I think it was worth it.

Man, this is great.

Man, this is the best.

You guys sittin' around

eatin' dinner like a family.

I always wanted that.

This is really wonderful.

Wonderful.

So, what's for dessert?

- Kitchen's closed.

- Aw.

- Yeah, I got things to do.

- Ah, boy.

Tom, why don't you

see the man out?

I didn't want to let him in.

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Deborah Kaplan

Deborah Kaplan (born November 11, 1970) is an American screenwriter and film director. Raised in Abington, Pennsylvania, Deborah Kaplan met her creative partner Harry Elfont while they were both enrolled at the Tisch School of the Arts of New York University (NYU). They have since written several films together, and directed two: Can't Hardly Wait and Josie and the Pussycats. Kaplan married actor Breckin Meyer (who had small roles in both of the films she directed) on October 14, 2001. They have two children together, a daughter named Keaton Willow, born on December 31, 2003 and another daughter named Clover. The marriage ended in divorce in 2012. more…

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Submitted on August 05, 2018

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    "Surviving Christmas" Scripts.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Mar. 2024. <https://www.scripts.com/script/surviving_christmas_19183>.

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