MOVIE REVIEWS : Four Christmases

When your significant other tells you you both need an exit “safe word” before you enter his dad’s Christmas gathering, you know you’re not in Bedford Falls. But while Vince Vaughn and Reese Witherspoon may not be It’s a Wonderful Life’s George and Mary Bailey, Four Christmases is a modern holiday classic in its own right. For one thing, every family neurosis and dysfunction have taken root in the four families of Vaughn and Witherspoon’s characters, Brad and Kate--and the sleek yuppie façade each has built with the other is about to come tumbling down.