2006 film by John Whitesell
Deck the Halls is a 2006 American Christmas comedy film directed by John Whitesell, written by Matt Corman, Chris Ord, and Don Rhymer, and starring Danny DeVito, Matthew Broderick, Kristin Davis, and Kristin Chenoweth. The film was released on November 22, 2006, by 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment on DVD on November 6, 2007. It was a critical and commercial failure.
Plot
In the fictional town of Cloverdale, Massachusetts, optometrist and self-proclaimed Christmas expert Steve Finch wants his family, consisting of wife Kelly, daughter Madison, and son Carter, to have a great Christmas, filled with traditions such as using an Advent calendar, taking Christmas card pictures in matching sweaters, and buying a large tree.
In the middle of the night on December 1, new neighbors move in across the street: car salesman and electrical engineer Buddy Hall and his trophy wife Tia, both of whom Steve and Kelly meet the next morning. Later that day, Kelly goes with Madison and Carter to the Hall house, where they meet the Halls’ teenage twin daughters, Ashley and Emily. Tia and Kelly immediately become friends, as do Ashley, Emily, and Madison.
Buddy goes to work as a used car salesman, where he sells a car to the owner of the dealership, giving him a promotion. That night, Tia complains to Buddy that while Buddy can sell anything he soon gets bored, that she's fed up with always moving on, to which Buddy responds he wants to achieve something greater than selling cars or copiers. After discovering that the neighborhood can be seen on satellite photos, but that his house is not visible, Buddy decides to make it visible using Christmas lights. As his display grows bigger, including live animals, it gets Buddy known around town, angering Steve and threatening his position as the “Christmas guy.”
Steve's envy towards Buddy increases; in various incidents, Steve's Christmas-card photo is ruined when two of Buddy's phonophobic feral horses get startled by the sleigh bells and take Steve for a wild ride which ends with him falling into a frozen lake, his car doors are ripped off during one of Buddy's light shows, and his private Christmas-tree lot is destroyed by a fire when Buddy accidentally spills gasoline with his chainsaw. Eventually, Buddy's house is completely lit, and even synchronized to music. Steve manages to sabotage Buddy's lights by filling his fusebox with snow, but a backup generator foils his plan. Buddy discovers the sabotage and retaliates by stealing the town's Christmas tree, putting it in Steve's house, and "buying" him a car.
Buddy and Steve make a bet: if Steve beats Buddy in the WinterFest speedskating race, then Buddy removes the lights, and if Buddy beats Steve, Steve pays for the car. Buddy wins, causing Steve to yell at Buddy for being a nobody, since his house is still not visible from space. Hurt, Buddy compensates by buying a huge amount of programmable LED lights, which he pays for by hocking Tia's expensive heirloom vase, and Tia and the girls depart.
Having had enough, Steve buys various fireworks including The Atomic Warlord, a large, illegal, military-grade rocket from a gangster and tries to destroy the Hall house. The rocket misfires, setting the town Christmas tree on fire, and Steve's family leaves, but not before Kelly scolds Steve for ignoring his children to focus on Buddy.
Steve discovers Buddy has been stealing the former's power for the latter's lights. However, after seeing Buddy taking down his lights, a remorseful Steve forgives Buddy. The two forget their rivalry and build a winter wonderland with all of Buddy's lights. They lure Tia, Kelly, and the kids home and all sit down to a nice meal made by both Steve and Buddy.
Soon, the whole town arrives at Buddy's house to help put Buddy's lights back up in time for a story about them on MTV. They do not work, and everyone sings carols and uses their cell phones as flashlights. As they sing, Steve accepts Buddy's offer to be his friend, and Carter notices that the lights did not work because one of the plugs is not plugged in properly. He tightly plugs it in, causing the lights to shine brightly through the night. SuChin Pak, doing the MTV report, gets confirmation from MyEarth that the house is indeed visible from space, and the crowd celebrates.
Production
Filming
The film was originally entitled All Lit Up, and while it was set in the United States, it was shot in Cloverdale, Surrey, Ocean Park, Surrey, and other locations throughout Metro Vancouver.
In the scene in which Steve and Buddy are in a speedskating race, Matthew Broderick had to train with a real Olympic speed skater trainer for a few weeks before he could film that scene. He trained at Chelsea Piers in New York.[2]
Reception
Box office
The film grossed $35.1 million in North America and $12.1 million in other territories for a total of $47.2 million, against a budget of $51 million, making it a box office failure where it only earned back 91.8% of its total budget.[3]
The film grossed $12 million in its opening weekend, finishing fourth at the box office.
Critical response
Deck the Halls was panned by critics. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 6% based on 85 reviews with an average rating of 3/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Relying on flat humor and a preposterous plot, Deck the Halls is an unnecessarily mean-spirited holiday movie that does little to put viewers in a holiday mood."[4] This was the third-worst reviewed Christmas movie on the site, after The Nutcracker in 3D and Christmas with the Kranks, respectively.[5] On Metacritic, the film has a score of 28 out of 100 based on 22 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".[6] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B−" on an A+ to F scale.[7]
Roger Moore of the Orlando Sentinel named it "A leaden slice of fruitcake, with about as much nutritional value," and concluding that "it's not worth working up a good hate over". Stephen Hunter remarked "I literally didn't count a single laugh in the whole aimless schlep," and suggested that the film should have been named Dreck the Halls instead. Michael Medved named it the "Worst Movie of 2006." Finally, Richard Roeper, co-host of the television show Ebert & Roeper, wrote:
"You can't believe how excruciatingly awful this movie is. It is bad in a way that will cause unfortunate viewers to huddle in the lobby afterward, hugging in small groups, consoling one another with the knowledge that it's over, it's over -- thank God, it's over. [...] Compared to the honest hard labor performed by tens of millions of Americans every day, a film critic's job is like a winning lottery ticket. But there IS work involved, and it can be painful -- and the next time someone tells me I have the best job in the world, I'm going to grab them by the ear, fourth-grade-teacher-in-1966-style, and drag them to see Deck the Halls."
Accolades
The film was nominated for three Golden Raspberry Awards:
