Christmas Eve in Miller's Point

by Mike McGranaghan

If Robert Altman had made a Christmas film, it might be something like Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point - except that it would surely be a whole lot better. This movie left me utterly confounded. It’s got energy, and it feels like it was made with enthusiasm. That said, it lacks the elements we typically expect from a motion picture. Maybe that was the point? I still don’t get it, even if it was.

A large family convenes at their ancestral home for Christmas Eve. Most of them don’t realize the place is being sold because the aging family matriarch is too old to stay there alone. Obviously, that isn’t a plot; it’s a situation. Approximately two dozen characters factor into that situation. We don’t learn much about how they’re related to each other. We don’t even learn most of their names. You might recognize a few of the actors. Elsie Fisher (Eighth Grade) is in the cast, as is Martin Scorsese’s daughter Francesca. Michael Cera has a small supporting role as a cop.

What happens in the picture? That’s where things become hazy. Director Tyler Taormina effectively recreates the chaos of showing up for a family gathering, where you hear snippets of conversations as you move from room to room. Scenes often last just a few seconds, and they’re unconnected from an overall narrative. Occasionally you can pick up on a character’s personal issue, although nothing is ever done with any of them. About the most overt drama to be found comes when the teenagers sneak out, attempting to score beer in a neighboring town.

Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point is a bunch of undefined characters in a non-existent story. Honestly, I’ve been to family gatherings that felt exactly like this movie. That’s fine in real life. When we go to a film, however, we arrive with the implicit belief that we will meet new people and come to understand their dilemmas. We expect to get a beginning, a middle, and an end that feel naturally woven together. This film provides none of that. It is nearly two hours of random behavior with no greater purpose.

That’s a long time to get essentially nothing. To compensate for the lack of a formal plot, Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point relies on an excess of music montages set to old-time songs, which isn’t sufficient. To be fair, the film certainly does make you feel like you’ve attended a raucous family reunion, especially in how you can’t wait to get out of there, go home, and pop some ibuprofen for the massive headache it gave you.

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