in Apple TV +, googleplay, prime, you tube

National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation

***

1989

‘…Christmas Vacation is the Fanny and Alexander of the John Hughes canon, a sincere, wry look back at Christmases past, and a showcase for the great comic talents of Chevy Chase…’

What do we talk about, when we talk about National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation? The third of the Vacation franchise starring Chevy Chase, it was based on a story written long before the franchise existed, re-tailored and adapted as the further adventures of the Griswold family. Writer and eminence grise of the Vacation quadrilogy John Hughes had little interest in following up the first two films, but convinced Warner Bros to adapt his original, semi-autobiographical story Christmas 59 as the giblets of this follow-up, with Hughes handing the directorial reins to Jeremiah S Chechik.

National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation turns out to be less scattershot and far more personal that the previous films; Hughes is very much the auteur here, and the Grwiswold’s adventures are toned down to something more reflective and wistful. Hughes being Hughes, there’s still space for elements seen in other movies, from the casting of William Hickey, later to feature in Home Alone, or the Chicago carnival floats from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. The story is simple enough, Clark Griswold (Chase) and his wife Ellen (wonderfully played by Beverley D’Angelo) aim to have a quiet Christmas with their family, including abrasive cousin Eddie (ideally cast Randy Quaid) who turns up in an RV which pumps out explosive effluent from a chemical toilet which clams up the Grisworld’s drains. Festive lights prove a danger, with an unfortunate cat chewing through the cables and meeting a swift demise, but Clark’s attempts to create a white-bread family Christmas, just like the ones he remembers from his family’s 1959 home movies, eventually turns successful despite all mishaps along the way.

‘Take a look around we’re on the threshold of hell,’ remarks Clark Grisworld as he surveys the festive carnage; turkeys stay too long in the oven, dogs chase squirrels through the house and it’s so cold that Clark is left ‘freezing my baguettes off’; it’s a hard life out there for a suburban dad. The Griswold kids are played by a rotating troupe of actors, with The Big Bang Theory’s Johnny Galecki and Juliette Lewis somehow getting the nod here, and a very young Julia Louis-Dreyfus as the yuppie next door who gets continually blindsided by the Grisworld’s slapstick antics.

‘You couldn’t hear a dump truck driving through a nitro glycerine plant’ is a typically rude line here as an aged aunt is mocked; sure, some of the gags about Clark Grisworld’s rather leering embarrassment about dealing with a pretty lingerie assistant in a department story don’t pass the PC test, but they’re part of a generally self-deprecating tone about the frustrations of parenthood. But Clark Grisworld’s transformation is an effective one; he eventually lets go of the idea that his corporate bonus cheque is a vital element of his holiday, and settles for just being a put-upon dad doing his best. Christmas Vacation is the Fanny and Alexander of the John Hughes canon, a sincere, wry look back at Christmases past, and a showcase for the great comic talents of Chevy Chase.

Beverley D’Angelo Chevy Chase Chicago comedy family film Jeremiah S Chechik.John Hughes Julia Louis-Dreyfus Juliette Lewis movie national lampoon natonal lampoon's christmas vacation review william hickey xmas