This Christmas

The Whitfield children come home for Christmas for the first time in years. Their mother Ma'Dere is still in the same house and has been with a man for a long time, though she has not introduced him to them. Each of the siblings arrives with a problem: one has left the army without leave, one is unhappy with her husband, one wants to make music and his mother is against it, one is in debt. While the food is being made everyone is hiding something. Preston A. Whitmore II directs. Delroy Lindo, Idris Elba, Loretta Devine and Chris Brown are in the cast. The film is among the known examples of the American holiday films about black families and keeps to the shape: a crowded table, old matters and reconciliation at the end. Its best quality is the mother; the woman hides her own life from her children and the film takes that directly as its subject. Music takes up considerable room and the closing scene is built as a musical number. It did well commercially and became a pattern repeated inside the genre. Its limit is the number of characters; some of the siblings are not worked enough and some strands end unresolved. Who it is for: viewers who like family holiday films and comedy drama with large casts. Who it is not for: it is predictable, the conflicts resolve easily, and the emotional register is high.