Holiday-dodging pair must face kin "in 'Four Christmases'

Vince Vaughn, whose 2007 "Fred Claus" was received like a regifted fruitcake, braves the genre again with director Seth Gordon's holiday tart, "Four Christmases."

Vaughn stars as his usual cynical fast-talker. Although he towers over co-star Reese Witherspoon, she goes toe-to-toe with him as a sophisticated Grinch. They play San Francisco live-ins Brad and Kate, whose annual holiday-family-avoidance technique -- elaborate lies about international charity missions -- is exposed when a news crew covering a socked-in airport reveals their Fiji vacation plans.

Busted, they agree to visit each of their divorced folks (Mary Steenburgen, Sissy Spacek, Robert Duvall and Jon Voight) on Christmas Day, setting up the film's "Meet the Parents ..... and the Parents ..... and the Parents ..... and the Parents" premise.

The moms, Mary Steenburgen as the born-again mistress of a "cougar den" and a New Age-y Sissy Spacek, remind us how much these actresses are missed these days.

Each visit exposes the cracks in the relationship and Brad and Kate's life plan. Curiously, only Jon Voight, whose estrangements from daughter Angelina Jolie are tabloid legend, is spared a mockable character trait as he delivers an earnest speech about family and forgiveness.

You'll find cliches -- lunkhead brothers, a condescending big sister, photo albums, childhood trauma -- but there also is an improv Nativity play and slapstick mixed with subtle humor. Is it funny? Yeah. Sometimes very.

The sporadic laughs are stalled by the requisite learning and growing. But a legally improbable epilogue sets up a potential sequel, "Four Christenings."

- By Suzanne Condie Lambert / The Arizona Republic

Four Christmases

Rating: 2 and a half stars ( out of four)

Cast: Vince Vaughn, Reese Witherspoon, Robert Duvall, Sissy Spacek, Mary Steenburgen, Jon Voight.

Running time: 82 minutes.

Rated: PG-13; sexual humor and language.