The Perfect Holiday is a 2007 American comedy film directed by Lance Rivera, starring Gabrielle Union, Morris Chestnut, Charlie Murphy, and Terrence Howard, and is produced by Academy Award-nominated actress Queen Latifah, who also serves as narrator. The film was released on December 12, 2007. It was also the first film by Destination Films to receive a wide release since Beautiful.
Plot
Benjamin (Morris Chestnut) is an aspiring songwriter who attempts to break into the music business by giving a copy of his recording track of a Christmas album to a rap artist named J-Jizzy (Charles Q. Murphy). Nancy (Union) is a divorced mother, who is too busy taking care of her three children to take care of herself. Her daughter Emily (Khail Bryant) overhears her mother say that she wished for a compliment from a man, and the daughter tells the local mall's Santa Claus about her mother's wish.
The Santa Claus turns out to be Benjamin, who notices Nancy. Later, while sitting in a Starbucks after his shift as Santa, Benjamin and his friend Jamal (Faizon Love) see Nancy go into a dry cleaners. Benjamin borrows Jamal's jacket, pretends to drop it off at the cleaners, tells Nancy that she's a very attractive woman (granting her wish), and leaves. Eventually, the two start to date and end up falling in love—without Ben realizing that Nancy's ex-husband is J-Jizzy.
Things take a turn for the worse, however, because Nancy's oldest son, John-John (Malik Hammond) is jealous of Benjamin going out with his mother and plots to break up the relationship. What follows is a series of funny and touching scenes that show viewers what "family" is really about.
Queen Latifah and Terrence Howard play omniscient roles in the movie. Howard is a mischievous and sly angel named "Bah Humbug", while Latifah is the kind, thoughtful angel, called "Mrs. Christmas".
Cast
- Gabrielle Union - Nancy Taylor
- Morris Chestnut - Benjamin Armstrong
- Charlie Murphy - J-Jizzy
- Malik Hammond - John-John Taylor
- Jeremy Gumbs - Mikey Taylor
- Khail Bryant - Emily Taylor
- Faizon Love - Jamal
- Jill Marie Jones - Robin
- Katt Williams - Delicious
- Queen Latifah - Mrs. Christmas
- Rachel True - Brenda
- Terrence Howard - Bah Humbug
Reception
The film was neither a critical nor commercial success. Rotten Tomatoes reported that 19% of critics gave positive reviews based on 59 reviews. It has a consensus stating The Perfect Holiday is the perfect example of Christmas movie clichés run amok.[4] Metacritic gave the film a 32 out of 100 approval rating based on 22 reviews, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".[5] On its opening weekend, it opened poorly at #6 with $2.2 million.[6] The film grossed $5.8 million domestically.
References
- ^ "The Perfect Holiday". Freestylereleasing.com. 13 December 2007. Retrieved 23 September 2017.
- ^ "The Perfect Holiday (2007)". Box Office Flops. Retrieved 14 November 2016.
- ^ "The Perfect Holiday (2007)". Box Office Mojo.
- ^ "The Perfect Holiday". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango. Retrieved October 7, 2021.
- ^ "The Perfect Holiday (2007):Reviews". Metacritic.
- ^ "The Perfect Holiday (2007)- Weekend Box Office Results". Box Office Mojo.
