YMMV / Christmas with the Kranks

• Accidental Aesop: The movie is supposed to be about the Christmas spirit but it could easily be a warning against conformity and living up to community expectations.
• Adaptation Displacement: Of Skipping Christmas, a novel by John Grisham, of all people.
• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • Luther is depicted as a self-centered jerkass, but perhaps he's just reacting, as anybody would, to a pack of controlling neighbors who try and tell him how to celebrate the holidays.
  • Blair is supposedly the sweet child that used to babysit all the kids, who everyone in town loves. But is she really worth that kind of admiration? From the looks of it, she is an only child, who is used to getting everything exactly as she wants (down to the "honey ham", which by the way is unopened, meaning she didn't even appreciate it) and who is superficially "good" because she is in the Peace Corps. She springs a surprise visit home, yet expects everything to be there, including that ham. She expects them to just wait at home this year, despite the fact that there is nothing holding them there and plenty of reasons to leave (the neighbors for instance). In essence, Blair is demanding they spend that $6000 to behave as normal, and then too thoughtless or calloused to realize what a production they have to go through every year to do Christmas. It also didn't help that she was coming home with a fiancé after only being gone a few weeks (although to be fair it's mentioned he's an old friend from college), so she had jumped into their relationship with little sense of what being engaged means. Further, her level of freak-out that police could be trying to arrest a thief shows just how pampered and sheltered she is.
  • Are the neighbors really a good wholesome group of people who want to bask in the Christmas spirit? Or are they conformist busybodies who bully anyone who doesn't live up to their Hallmark-esque standards.
  • Is Vic Frohmeyer really a Christmas enthusiast? Or is he a self-serving politician who just wants to use his own neighbors for personal advancement?
• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: The movie is grounded in reality, but the final shot ends with one of the rooftop Frosties tipping its hat to the viewers as Marty, as Santa, flies by overhead in a Volkswagen Bug pulled by reindeer.
• Bile Fascination: The primary interest most people have in it is how it shows everything that can be wrong with terrible Christmas movies.
• Common Knowledge: A lot of viewers seem to think that Blair met her fiance Enrique for the first time on the Peace Corps trip. Therefore they have a Fourth-Date Marriage. While this is the case in the original novel, in the film, there is a line that explains that Enrique is an old friend of Blair's from college. This means their sudden engagement isn't quite as jarring as it could have been.
• Critical Backlash: Those who grew up on this film have spoken in defense of the film's vitriolic thrashing. While concerning that it is no masterpiece, fans argue the film has enough funny and sweet moments to deserve better than its reputation as one of the worst Christmas movies in existence.
• Critic-Proof: Was savaged by critics at the time of its release, and still managed to become a box office success.
• Designated Hero: The neighbors, all of whom have gone out of their way to force their Christmas traditions and the competition upon the Kranks, only to then accuse them of acting like spoiled, selfish babies when they finally relent.
• Designated Villain: Luther and Nora. Who knew not celebrating Christmas or simply celebrating it your own way was considered a borderline criminal offense?
• Ending Fatigue: The moment where Luther gives his cruise tickets to his neighbors would have made a nice note for the film to go out on. Unfortunately, it drags on way past this point, and before the actual ending we get more bits including another neighbor being stuck on the Kranks' roof, the robber getting loose and then being caught by Luther, and the aforementioned Big-Lipped Alligator Moment.
• Funny Moments: In spite of its reputation, the film manages to get a few solid gags in:
  • When Nora tries to flee her house Vic tries to grab onto her open car window and force her to stop the car. Nora responds in a panic by rolling the window up with Vic's fingers still inside, with Nora only mustering apologetic whimpers in response.
  • When some Christmas Carolers try to guilt the Kranks into hanging up Frosty, by singing "Frosty the Snowman" the two flee into the boiler room... only to be confronted by their Frosty statue with the embers from the boiler giving the look of demonic eyes on Frosty... all while the carolers continue to sing.
  • Nora comes home to find Luther dangling from the roof after trying to hang Frosty on his own.
  Nora: What on earth are you doing?! Are you okay?!
  Luther: Actually, it was a suicide attempt. Apparently, I misread the instructions. Put my leg to sleep, though.
  • When the police try to stall Enrique and Blair's arrival, by "responding" to a break-in, they find an actual robber who ends up getting shoved in full view of the passengers, interrupting Blair telling Enrique how great this Christmas will be.
• Heartwarming Moment: Luther offers the cruise tickets to his neighbor, Walt, and his dying wife as a Christmas present for them. Even more heartwarming considering that Luther and Walt have done nothing, but squabble for most of the movie.
  • Vic Fromeyer rounding up all the neighbors to help the Kranks celebrate their last-minute, annual Christmas party, all for Blair and her fiance.
  • The very ending when Luther shows gratitude towards Marty, whom he was dismissive of at the start of the film. Bonus points, since it's revealed that Marty is actually Santa Claus- who likely played a huge part in giving the Kranks a Christmas miracle.
• Informed Wrongness: In the end the audience is somehow supposed to agree with the neighbours that the Kranks are being selfish in wanting to celebrate the holidays on their own terms and not be bullied into conforming with everyone else over a tacky competition. Luther insisting that they not even give any money to charity/the church seems to have been thrown it explicitly to make this go down easier (and even then he had been quickly talked into matching their previous year's donation).
• Jerkass Woobie: Luther would be just the most irredeemable asshole who goes out of his way to piss people off in other circumstances, but considering the situation, and said people who are far worse than he is, you're more likely to sympathize because of all the crap he goes through.
• Karmic Overkill: Was Luther kind of self-centered about his own desires? Maybe. Did he deserve to be harrassed by everybody in his life because he wanted to go on a nice cruise? Probably not.
• Nightmare Fuel: The Kranks' snowman that switches between a happy face and a evil Psychotic Smirk at the drop of a hat and gets a pair of Glowing Eyes of Doom in a later scene when it falls over Luther. It makes you wonder if it's possessed or something.
• Rooting for the Empire: Many, many viewers have described disgust for the neighbors shoving specific holiday traditions down the Kranks’ throats. Even with Luther firmly in the realm of Jerkass, many side with him just to spite his bossy, self-righteous, authoritarian neighbors.
• So Bad, It's Good: For some viewers, the movie is hilariously funny in how much it gets wrong with basic storytelling, how unlikable the characters are, how poor the CGI is, and how ridiculous the morals are.
• Special Effect Failure:
  • The CGI face that's plastered onto Tim Allen's stunt double during his fall from the roof crosses into creepy territory, not helped by the extreme close-up we get.
  • The CGI is very poor in the ending shot of Santa flying away in a Volkswagen bug pulled by reindeer.
• Strawman Has a Point: The movie expects the viewers to side with the neighbors who harass the title characters for deciding to celebrate Christmas by taking a cruise. Their daughter went off on a Peace Corps assignment thus making the first time in almost two decades they have time for themselves, except the annual Christmas lights competition in which the neighborhood competes annually would count against them having a family out of town and not competing, and they could not have that. The entire plot of the movie is because the neighborhood wants a certificate or a trophy to put in Town Hall for a year. The ending moral is about Christmas being about togetherness and love, the husband portrayed as being selfish and petty for resenting the neighborhood finally getting him to join their traditions (complete with Unsportsmanlike Gloating and insults) and still wanting to go on the cruise. Said cruise was a romantic gesture and an attempt to spend long deserved time alone with his wife, a much better symbolism of Christmas' virtues than bullying someone in excess for the sake of winning a contest.
• Sweetness Aversion: The Baby Einstein-influenced score that accompanies most of the movie. Special mention goes to the scene where Luther looks at how much is spent on Christmas every year.^note It's actually the piece "Typewriters" by composer Leroy Anderson
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:
  • Walt, Luthor's Arch-Enemy, has a wife who is terminally ill. You could wring a tragicomic plot from a dying person enjoying what will likely be their last holiday...but aside from serving as a plot point for a shoehorned redemption arc, the character has no bearing on the story whatsoever.
  • Marty turning out to be a Volkswagen driving Santa would be a good twist...if his character had done more stuff and been involved in some of Luther and Nora's drama.
  • The thief who shows up near the end of the movie could either make a good villain or he could be a sympathetic criminal who just needed some holiday cheer to turn his life around...but instead he immediately robs the house, gets beat up, shoved back into the squad car, and nothing in the plot changes.
  • Vic Frohmeyer seems like the kind of guy who would be a Christmas movie villain: a bullying bigshot who forces his will on neighbors for his own advancement, only to be defeated and learn that holidays aren't about conforming to old traditions but love and care. But the movie treats his controlling behavior toward the Kranks as justified.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
  • The brief climax of the electricity failing, and thus the neighbors' superficial grandiose take on Christmas being destroyed as well, could have worked as a good compromise, with both sides having to appreciate the actual unselfish spirit of Christmas. Unfortunately, the problem is fixed, and they get things completely their way.
  • One plot point is Blair coming back home and bringing a fiance. Surely, Nora and Luther would be more than a bit stunned over their daughter making a big step in her life, leading to a semi-serious plot about marriage and relationships...but instead, they worry about throwing their daughter a party than her beginning to start her own family.
  • Walt and Luther have something of a feud with one another. The origins of their feud and coming to blows only to bury the hatchet around Christmas could make for an interesting dramedy, but it is barely touched upon and it gets resolved with a single token gesture. Still, their issues are hardly explored, with Luther immediately burying the hatchet with an act of generosity. Walt's wife suffering from metastasized cancer could've lead to a bittersweet story about Walt and Luther learning to let go of their animosity in light of a such tragedy.
  • Blair's relationship with her parents, the community, and her fiance is little touched upon despite her departure impacting the community. You could make a good storyline replete with a drama about Luther and Nora, along with their neighbors, coming to terms with the little girl they knew leaving the nest.
• Too Bleak, Stopped Caring: Luther and the neighbors are both very unsympathetic, so many viewers don't care about either of them. Luther's grievances are completely reasonable, but he's such an unlikeable Jerkass that it becomes hard to root for him either.
• Trailer Joke Decay: The frozen cat, which even appears on some posters.
• Unintentionally Sympathetic: The film tries portraying Luther as a jerkass to justify all the grief he suffers from, but for a lot of the audience goers it utterly fails to accomplish this because a lot of his grief seems understandable. It just comes across as a flimsy way to justify its problematic plot. The only reason he and Nora went to such extreme lengths to celebrate Christmas ($6000 a year) is because of their daughter, and with their daughter gone they don't have it in them to continue their traditions. The cruise was just their way to get over empty nest syndrome. While sending everyone at his firm letters telling them that he isn't getting them gifts seems like a bit much, we never get any hints that he is a Bad Boss otherwise and his employees act haughty for not getting fancy presents. While charity is a good thing, it isn't a crime not to donate money to a good cause, especially when you have been consistently giving to charity every year. While Luther tends to snark at and dismiss his neighbors, this is only done after his so-called friends and neighbors give him and his wife a hard time for incredibly petty reasons, making his Kick the Dog moments come across as him reacting to spite from a band of entitled conformists with spite in-kind.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic:
  • Nora is portrayed as an unselfish giver who goes along with Luther's plan only after everyone hounds her, and is supposed to be the voice of reason and conscience. Instead, she is an insufferably self-righteous person who thinks that her problems (and her money) entitle her to what she wants. Watch the scene where she's trying to get the so-called "honey ham" and how she expects to be able to bribe people to get her ham, and then tells people how her daughter is in the Peace Corps. She spends most of the movie berating Luther about what is a reasonable decision considering their daughter has left.
  • We're supposed to feel bad for Walt, Luther's antagonistic neighbor because his wife is dying. But the movie does a poor job of making Walt feel sympathetic: there are no scenes where he is shown worrying and fussing over his sick wife. It comes across as a poor attempt by the plot to excuse his rude behavior toward Luther. His "thank-you" to Luther for the cruise tickets also comes across as rather ungrateful and harsh.
• The Woobie: Both of the Kranks. But Nora, especially during the ham scene. And somehow, the movie expected viewers to be against them for skipping Christmas.

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