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“Dreck the Halls.” “O Unholy Night.” “Jingle Hell.”

These are some of the not very good alternative titles I thought of while resisting the urge to bolt during “Love the Coopers.” The more curdled-than-cuddly holiday film already had offended this former copy editor even before I entered the theater. Its crime? The lack of punctuation in its name.

A third-grader would know there should be a comma after “ Love ” since, as the holly-jolly folly of a cliché-engorged opening montage confirms, it refers to the clan’s preferred salutation on their greeting cards that duly employs, yes, a comma.  As it stands, it sounds like a command. To which the correct response would be a resounding ho-ho-NO!—exclamation point included.

Normally I would place most of the blame on director Jessie Nelson (“ I Am Sam ”) for delivering such a jumbled, toxic snow globe of a movie complete with a brewing storm, caustic quarreling and excessive caroling in an effort to undercut sentimentality. But I suspect screenwriter Steven Rogers (" Hope Floats ," “ Stepmom ”), is more to blame, if only for overstuffing the plot. There are too many trite storytelling devices, such as a narrator a la “ A Christmas Story ” on top of flashbacks of past holiday memories with younger actors who barely look like their adult versions. That the voice belongs to Steve Martin doesn’t help a whit. There are too many characters to even attempt to care about. And there is too great of a reliance on music both yuletide and not (Sting, Nina Simone and Bob Dylan ) to fill in the emotional blanks.

But at least Nelson, who tosses a cute kid or an adorable doggy into the proceedings like cheap tinsel whenever matters get too cynical, has managed to corral three Oscar winners and one recent nominee for her cast. They appear to reside in some sort of 21st-century Bedford Falls where it must be against the law to not smother your house or place of business with garish seasonal decorations as Santa Clauses gather en masse on the sidewalks like some North Pole edition of “ West Side Story .”

Diane Keaton —who fared much better in the faintly similar 2005 dysfunctional-family holiday dramedy “ The Family Stone ”—is the matriarch, a Martha Stewart-type complete with festive apron who demands one more happy gathering with her extended family before she and husband John Goodman announce they are separating after 40 years. What is forcing them apart? Keaton is too wrapped up in their grown children’s lives and Goodman wants to finally take his long-postponed dream trip to Africa, with or without her. 

Marisa Tomei shows up as Keaton’s stereotypically spinster sister who is filled with resentment, low self-esteem and struggling with a shoplifting problem. The trouble is that the vivacious Tomei, who is 50 to Keaton’s 69, is neither believable as her sibling nor as a spinster.

Alan Arkin , however, is not a bad fit as their father, whose attraction to Amanda Seyfried ’s lonely diner waitress—who is 52 years younger than her co-star—is supposed to be poignant when it really is downright creepy, even if the mention of Charlie Chaplin ’s attraction to a waifish blind girl in “ City Lights ” supposedly makes it OK. Meanwhile, the wonderful June Squibb is reduced to playing Aunt Fishy, an addled resident of an old folks home whose big scenes involve eating the roof of a gingerbread house and revealing her underpants as she did in “ Nebraska .”

Others along for the ride include Ed Helms as Keaton and Goodman’s jobless son and father of three who is undergoing a divorce; Olivia Wilde as their unlucky-in-love playwright daughter who prefers to hang out at the airport bar tossing back dirty martinis than spending one extra minute with the folks; and Anthony Mackie , who provides diversity as well as subtlety as an reclusive police officer who catches Tomei in the act of stealing a brooch as a gift for her sister by hiding it in her mouth.

There is a long list of naughty and not very nice lapses in logic and good taste for the sake of being edgy, before we get to the fearsome feast where everyone either says the wrong thing, or shares unpleasant revelations until someone lands face down in a bowl full of mashed potatoes. Here are just a few examples:

*Is it funny that Helms’ angel-faced toddler daughter likes to repeat a phrase she heard her mom say to her dad: “You are such a dick!”?

*Is it amusing that Goodman has a habit of mangling lyrics of carols, such as singing “brown yon virgin” during “Silent Night”?

*How is it that Keaton can spend the whole day hanging out with Goodman and their granddaughter doing fun Christmas stuff, and yet she can instantly whip up a fantasy spread of massive platters of elaborate dishes and desserts without breaking a sweat?

*How is it proper that Helms allows his gawky teen son to make out with his girl crush in a hospital waiting area after a family member falls ill? 

*And why does a character have to come out as gay in a way that feels rather awkward and unrealistic? 

If there is any reason to watch all these shenanigans, it is the makeshift relationship that Wilde invents to impress her parents with a soon-to-be-deployed soldier ( Jake Lacy , who was terrific in last year’s “ Obvious Child ” and scores again here). There is something sad and yet authentic about her lack of connection with others and in how Lacy’s sincere military man is able to break down her defenses, despite her obsessive need to debase his political and religious beliefs (Republican and Christian).

At least “Love the Coopers” has the nerve to even bring up the topic of faith in a mainstream and primarily secular holiday film. But it loses most of those points with its odd choice of turning outdoor snowmen, gingerbread men and chocolate figurines into a Greek chorus that comments on the action with their silent scowls.

Besides, as audiences leave they should provide plenty of disapproving reactions all on their own.

Susan Wloszczyna

Susan Wloszczyna spent much of her nearly thirty years at USA TODAY as a senior entertainment reporter. Now unchained from the grind of daily journalism, she is ready to view the world of movies with fresh eyes.

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Love the Coopers (2015)

Rated PG-13

Diane Keaton as Charlotte

John Goodman as Sam

Ed Helms as Hank

Olivia Wilde as Eleanor

Amanda Seyfried as Ruby

Alex Borstein as Angie

Marisa Tomei as Emma

Anthony Mackie as Officer Williams

Jake Lacy as Joe

Alan Arkin as Bucky

June Squibb as Aunt Fishy

• Jessie Nelson
• Steven Rogers

Cinematographer

• Elliot Davis
• Nancy Richardson

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Review: In ‘Love the Coopers,’ a Dysfunctional Family Sits Down to Christmas Dinner

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By Neil Genzlinger

• Nov. 12, 2015

Classic Christmas movies have a magic that can’t be manufactured, but “Love the Coopers” desperately tries to do just that. It employs a familiar conceit — dysfunctional family gathers for holiday meal — and enlists recognizable actors to deliver it, but the result plays like a collection of ideas and jokes borrowed from other movies. The film is occasionally amusing but rarely feels genuine.

Diane Keaton and John Goodman are Charlotte and Sam, a long-married couple waiting for their extended family to arrive for the big meal, at which they intend to announce that they’re separating. We see the various family members making their way toward the gathering. There’s the son (Ed Helms) with the broken marriage, jobless and adrift. There’s Charlotte’s sister (Marisa Tomei), who is arrested while trying to shoplift a Christmas present. There’s a grandson (Timothée Chalamet) in the throes of romantic infatuation.

The thread that comes closest to being absorbing is played out by Olivia Wilde and Jake Lacy, whose characters do an opposites-attract dance after meeting at the airport. But the film, written by Steven Rogers and directed by Jessie Nelson, is too obviously manipulative. Its shameless appropriation doesn’t help. There is, for instance, a folksy narration straight out of “A Christmas Story,” which is also raided for its dogs-disrupt-dinner-plans gag .

“Love the Coopers” wants to be as beloved as that movie and several others that it calls to mind, but its overwrought exchanges (especially between Charlotte and Sam) and efforts to push every emotional button in sight make it tedious, not tenderhearted.

“Love the Coopers” is rated PG-13 (Parents strongly cautioned) for grown-up themes and a smattering of strong language.

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‘love the coopers’: film review.

Diane Keaton, John Goodman, Olivia Wilde and Amanda Seyfried headline Jessie Nelson's ensemble comedy about a troubled family getting together for Christmas.

By Jon Frosch

Senior Editor, Reviews

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Now that awards season is upon us, allow me to suggest a new category: Most Extravagantly Wasted Cast.

And the winner is …  Love the Coopers , which squanders the likes of Diane Keaton , John Goodman , Marisa Tomei , Alan Arkin , Olivia Wilde , June Squibb, Amanda Seyfried and Anthony Mackie in a Christmas comedy of numbing tedium and tackiness.

Release date: Nov 13, 2015

Some entries in the largely undistinguished dysfunctional-family-holiday-film subgenre — The Family Stone (also with Keaton) and Jodie Foster’s Home for the Holidays , to name two — are watchable despite their forced zaniness and predictable emotional beats; the spectacle of attractive stars packed into the frame to act out universal problems (meddling parents, sibling rivalries, unfulfilled romantic and professional lives) has its charms and comforts. But occasionally one of these movies comes along and, in its total lack of wit and sincerity, makes you feel like the ultimate Scrooge. Love the Coopers , directed by Jessie Nelson ( Corrina , Corrina ;  I Am Sam ), is such a movie.

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Red flags abound from the beginning, as an off-screen narrator (Steve Martin) bombards us with cloyingly phrased background info on various members of the titular clan. Keaton (in full flibbertigibbet mode) and Goodman (looking half-awake) are Charlotte and Sam, a 60ish Pittsburgh couple on the verge of separation but determined to have one last Christmas with their kids and grandkids. The two spend most of the film bickering over some trip they never took for some reason. Pardon the lack of specifics; it may be the dullest conjugal dispute ever committed to screen.

Ed Helms ( Vacation ) plays their divorced and recently unemployed son Hank, who has a few kids, including a sullen teenage boy ( Timothee Chalamet ) and a mischievous 5-year-old girl (Blake Baumgartner ). The former pursues a classmate and ends up kissing her, repeatedly, with far too much slobbery tongue; the latter has a vexing habit of exclaiming “You’re such a dick!” at inopportune times. Neither of these running jokes is remotely funny.

Wilde plays Charlotte and Sam’s daughter, Eleanor, who’s beautiful, smart and opinionated; in other words — given the type of movie this is — she’s single. While waiting for her flight home, Eleanor meets Joe (Jake Lacy of HBO’s Girls ), a boyishly handsome uniformed soldier whose toothy smile and square jaw help her get past the fact that he’s a Republican. Tired of her mother’s nagging her to date more, Eleanor recruits Joe to accompany her to Christmas dinner and pretend to be her beau.

Though it features one of  Love the Coopers ‘ cringiest lines (when Joe asks Eleanor if she believes in God, she replies: “I believe in the sound of Nina Simone’s voice”), Wilde’s is the only storyline that holds your interest. That’s probably because, as she proved in Joe Swanberg’s terrific Drinking Buddies , the actress is a formidable onscreen flirt (all side-eye sass and veiled longing) and here brings much-needed vinegar to insipid material. The scenes of Eleanor and Joe also stand out as the only ones grounded in any sense of contemporary reality; she ribs him about climate change, gun control and religion, though of course their clashing values are no match for the filmmakers’ need to see Eleanor settle down.

Meanwhile, Tomei plays Emma, Charlotte’s sister (don’t even try doing the math) and easily the film’s least charitable creation. Childless, husband-less, needy and passive-aggressive, Emma is also a shoplifter, and ends up in the back of a police car driven by a closeted cop (Mackie, saddled with a semi-insulting character). She’s envious of Charlotte’s seemingly perfect suburban existence, but learns a valuable life lesson, which, as far as I could tell, had something to do with the importance of buying expensive gifts for the people you love. Tomei is a superb actress and, I trust, will soon move on to better things.  

Finally, there’s Arkin as Charlotte and Emma’s ailing father Bucky, who spends his days at a diner, bonding with one of the waitresses (a miscast Seyfried ). His feelings for her are an uncomfortable mix of paternal and lecherous, and the less said about their ill-conceived scenes together, the better.

Nelson and screenwriter Steven Rogers ( P.S. I Love You ) shuffle between these characters for an hour or so, before everyone converges on the homestead for the big meal and attendant chaos. Things get marginally more entertaining at this point — partly because June Squibb is on hand as Sam’s aunt, and when all else fails, an elderly person’s flatulence and memory lapses are always good for an easy giggle.

Love the Coopers certainly looks sleek enough (thanks to seasoned DP Eliot Davis), and Nelson, trying hard to avoid the visual flatness of so many studio comedies, directs with a rather aggressive touch. The result is a film cluttered with flashbacks, flourishes of whimsy, jittery close-ups used to signpost emotionally significant moments, split-screen, clips from black-and-white classics (a flash of George Cukor’s Born Yesterday serves as an unintentionally sadistic reminder that, yes, comedies can be funny), music ranging from holiday standards to Bob Dylan, and cutesy character tics (example: Hank snorts when he laughs). But none of those things can conceal the creative void at the movie’s heart or distract from its failure to make us feel anything for the stick figures onscreen.

One scene toward the end, in which  Tomei and Keaton hash out their differences, has a slightly sharper edge and a hint of something resembling real human emotion, and there’s a final twist concerning the narrator’s identity that earns a grudging smile. Still, by then, loving the Coopers will be out of the question; leaving them will be the priority.

Production companies: CBS Films, Groundswell Productions, Imagine Entertainment

Cast: Diane Keaton, John Goodman, Ed Helms, Amanda Seyfried , Alan Arkin , Marisa Tomei , Olivia Wilde, Jake Lacy, June Squibb, Anthony Mackie

Director: Jessie Nelson

Writer: Steven Rogers

Producers: Jessie Nelson, Michael London, Janice Williams

Executive producers: Steven Rogers, Kim Roth, Anna Culp , Ted Gidlow

Cinematographer: Elliot Davis

Production designer: Beth A. Rubino

Editor: Nancy Richardson

Costume designer: Hope Hanafin

Composer: Nick Urata

Casting: Mary Vernieu , Venus Kanani

PG-13, 107 min.

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Love the Coopers

The intertwined stories of four generations of Coopers unfold right before the annual family reunion on Christmas Eve. Can they survive the most beautiful time of the year? The intertwined stories of four generations of Coopers unfold right before the annual family reunion on Christmas Eve. Can they survive the most beautiful time of the year? The intertwined stories of four generations of Coopers unfold right before the annual family reunion on Christmas Eve. Can they survive the most beautiful time of the year?

• Jessie Nelson
• Steven Rogers
• Steve Martin
• Diane Keaton
• John Goodman
• 164 User reviews
• 101 Critic reviews
• 31 Metascore
• 2 nominations

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• Trivia January 2015: filming in a small town near Pittsburgh called Millvale.
• Goofs As Eleanor and Joe are talking by the window in the airport lounge, the people sitting behind them change with almost every cut.

Bucky : That feeling like you've landed in the wrong life. Everybody feels that way.

• Crazy credits During the last credits, there are some outtakes of the actors singing Christmas songs.
• Connections Featured in 'Tis the Season: The Holidays on Screen (2022)
• Soundtracks White Winter Hymnal Written by Robin Pecknold Performed by Fleet Foxes Courtesy of Sub Pop Records

User reviews 164

• Jan 17, 2017
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• November 13, 2015 (United States)
• United States
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• An Perfect Christmas
• Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA (location)
• Groundswell Productions
• Imagine Entertainment
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• $17,000,000 (estimated)
• $26,302,731
• Nov 15, 2015
• $42,426,912

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• Runtime 1 hour 47 minutes

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‘Love the Coopers’ Review: Diane Keaton and All-Star Cast Celebrate a Messy Yet Heartfelt Christmas

Jessie Nelson’s holiday family reunion movie is sprawling, awkward and contrived, yet brimming with goodwill toward men

There’s no taste like ham for the holidays, and that’s the prevailing flavor in “Love the Coopers,” writer-director Jessie Nelson’s Christmas family reunion movie. It’s sort of a mashup of “Home for the Holidays,” “Love Actually,” and some minor Cameron Crowe movie that’s sprawling, awkward and contrived, yet brimming with goodwill toward men.

Diane Keaton and John Goodman play Charlotte and Sam, a four-decade couple putting off divorce to fake one last perfect Yule for their imperfect clan. Their daughter Eleanor ( Olivia Wilde) a bitter liberal pill, picks up a kindly right-wing GI named Joe ( Jake Lacy ) to take to Christmas dinner as her ersatz date, because she can’t bear the “antici-pointment” of waiting to see her mom’s judgmental disapproval over her brittle, barren ways.

Son Hank ( Ed Helms) pretends he’s got a job, and contends with his coltish teen (Timothee Chalamet) and generic toddler (Blake Baumgartner), plus a middle kid with not enough to do in the movie (Maxwell Simkins).

Grandpa ( Alan Arkin ), a widower, is crushing on a waitress ( Amanda Seyfried ), but not in a creepy way. Somehow, it’s heartwarming. Aunt Fishy ( June Squibb ) has a mild case of dementia that just makes her sweet and happy. Poor Marisa Tomei seems as alienated as her character, Keaton’s resentfully single sister, trapped in a dead-end subplot with a troubled cop ( Anthony Mackie ) until she can make it to Christmas dinner.

The screenplay by Steven Rogers (“Stepmom”) is a dog’s breakfast: a mess, like one of the dishes Keaton serves her family, a “Dump Salad.” The vignettes sometimes resonate with the viewer but don’t really connect into a plot, there are too many characters with too many stories and pretty good flashbacks, and some of the jokes are impossible to laugh out loud at unless you’re a highly trained and paid actor.

Even so, these performers are the genuine article even when their dialogue is jive, and Nelson’s formidable niceness somehow powers us right through the longueurs to the touching and amusing parts, of which there are many. Her over-obvious style contains subtle truths about the  romance of family. She works hard to make it so that every member has a sound point and is partly right, no matter how appalling their critique of somebody else. It’s formulaic, but at least it hews in the direction of emotional realism.

“Love the Coopers” does, at least, sound sensational, with “Little Miss Sunshine” composer and DeVotchKa rocker Nick Urata, aided by “music archivist” T-Bone Burnett , who assembles a mix of Christmas carols old and new, including ones by Robert Plant and Alison Krauss, Fleet Foxes, The Cats and the Fiddle, and Bob Dylan .

When it’s all said and done, you might not exactly love the Coopers, but you’ll probably slurp them down like eggnog and wind up with a pleasant, sleepy, bough-scented buzz, like one of the boozier members of the family. Concession stands should strongly considered providing spiked nog.

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I have a definite soft spot for a good Christmas movie, and especially those dealing with dysfunctional families — think  The Family Stone  or  Home For The Holidays.  Nothing in the genre tops  It’s A Wonderful Life. Love, Actually  is a good one too, and that is probably the closest template to the latest holiday offering  Love The Coopers,  which revolves around the traditional Christmas Eve dinner of an extended family but tells the stories in a segmented-type form.

As I say in my video review (click the link above), critics will probably pounce on this movie, as they often do on this type of feel-good comedy, but they would just be a bunch of scrooges. Don’t get me wrong: This is hardly Oscar-caliber material here, but it’s certainly good-natured and even in some places wildly entertaining if you can connect to the characters.

Set in snowy Pittsburgh, the film stars Diane Keaton and John Goodman as a long-married couple who hold their Christmas Eve family dinner but have not yet revealed to the family that they plan to separate. Alan Arkin is the family patriarch who is upset his favorite waitress at the local hangout (Amanda Seyfried) is leaving. Marisa Tomei plays Keaton’s sister, who is caught shoplifting and picked up by a chatty cop (Anthony Mackie). Ed Helms and Olivia Wilde are Keaton and Goodman’s grown kids, but Helms is out of work and Wilde feels she is unloved; most of her role is played in the airport where she meets cute with an Army guy (Jake Lacy) on leave. They have genuine chemistry and constitute the best sequences in the picture. June Squibb adds some laughs as the dotty aunt, and then there is Bolt, who plays Rags, the family dog — he has secrets of his own.

The film written by Steven Rogers and directed by Jessie Nelson weaves from comedy to drama with ease, thanks to Nelson’s nice balancing act putting this all together. The movie definitely lightweight, but it has something of an edge in the writing you don’t normally see in this kind of movie. CBS Films is releasing and actually it wouldn’t be hard to imagine this on  the network as part of its holiday programming. Whatever the venue, Love The Coopers  is the perfect gift for the entire family, and that’s certainly not a bad thing these days. Nelson, Michael London and Janice Williams are the producers.

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'Love the Coopers': EW review

Devan Coggan (rhymes with seven slogan) is a senior writer at Entertainment Weekly. Most of her personality is just John Mulaney quotes and Lord of the Rings references.

With a cast including Diane Keaton, John Goodman, Ed Helms, Amanda Seyfried, Alan Arkin, Marisa Tomei, June Squibb, Anthony Mackie, Olivia Wilde, and Jake Lacy, it shouldn’t be that hard to make a pleasant if forgettable Christmas movie. But even with such a talented ensemble, Love The Coopers’ convoluted narrative and overreliance on Christmas clichés keeps it from sparking any real holiday magic.

Charlotte (Keaton) and Sam (Goodman) head up the Cooper clan, and despite their insistence on one last perfect Christmas with their family, they’re on the brink of divorce, having drifted apart after 40 years of marriage. Helms stars as their son Hank, who, after recently separating from his wife, has not only lost his job as a photographer but now has to raise his three children on his own. His sister Eleanor (Wilde) is a failed playwright, and she’d rather kill time in the airport bar than spend an extra minute with her judgmental family.

These narratives weave together over the course of Christmas Eve, with divergent stories focusing on characters like Charlotte’s sister (Tomei), who spends her Christmas in the back of a squad car after shoplifting a brooch. Her arrest turns into a makeshift therapy session with the officer (Mackie), who’s struggling with his closeted homosexuality. Charlotte’s father (Arkin) also strikes up a relationship with a young, down-on-her-luck waitress (Seyfried) at the diner he frequents, and while it’s (uncomfortably) unclear whether his feelings toward her are fatherly or romantic, Arkin and Seyfried try their best to keep it from being too creepy.

The most engaging story goes to Eleanor, and after she starts up a conversation with a deploying soldier (Lacy) who’s stranded at the airport, she invites him to pose as her boyfriend and accompany her to Christmas dinner, hoping to silence her overbearing parents. Wilde and Lacy’s chemistry keep their burgeoning relationship believable, even as they struggle with lazy clichés: He’s a good Christian and a Republican, she only believes in “the sound of Nina Simone’s voice.”

Instead of letting the movie’s more emotional moments breathe, overly explanatory narration by Steve Martin interrupts any moments of tenderness. And while it’s billed as a comedy drama, there aren’t many laughs. The two biggest running gags — that Hank’s daughter (Blake Baumgartner) won’t stop calling people a d— and his teenage son (Timothée Chalamet) won’t stop sloppily making out with his girlfriend — weren’t that funny the first time. Better to stick to the Christmas classics. C

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Movie Review: Love the Coopers (2015)

• Greg Eichelberger
• Movie Reviews
• One response
• --> November 19, 2015

What would the Christmas season be without another movie where a dysfunctional family comes together in a star-studded ensemble production to sort out their personal problems and realize that their past histories and neurosis cannot keep them down? That despite what hatred and apathy they may feel for one another, in realty, like almost ALL families, they still love each other? To say this kind of thing has been done to death would be an understatement (remember such gems as “Surviving Christmas,” “Everybody’s Fine,” “ Four Christmases ,” “Home For the Holidays” and “Nothing Like the Holidays,” among others). Even more depressing, it’s a concept that’s rarely done well. Love the Coopers makes some interesting choices in its effort to put a fresh spin on a rather tepid concept, and while some of those choices fall flat, there are still some decent moments, as well (just not enough to make this terribly interesting or enjoyable).

The central characters are Sam and Charlotte Cooper (John Goodman, “ The Monuments Men ” and Diane Keaton, “ Morning Glory ”), a couple who are considering ending their marriage while the whole clan gets together for Christmas. Their various family members also each have some kind of domestic situation. Charlotte’s confused daughter Eleanor (Olivia Wilde, “ The Lazarus Effect ”) is so afraid of disappointing her parents (again) that she convinces a soldier she meets in an airport bar, Joe (Jake Lacy, “Carol”) to be her pretend boyfriend, despite their religious, political and personality differences. Charlotte’s envious sister Emma (Marisa Tomei, “ Parental Guidance ”) gets busted for shoplifting and ends up trying to psychoanalyze the arresting officer (Anthony Mackie, in his 10th film of the year, including “ Ant-Man ,” “ Avengers: Age of Ultron ” and “The Night Before”).

Meanwhile, her father, Bucky (Alan Arkin, “ Argo ”), is distraught to learn that his favorite diner waitress, Ruby (Amanda Seyfried, “ Ted 2 ”), is planning to move to a place called Hot Coffee, Miss), while son, Hank (Ed Helms, “ Vacation ”) can’t bring himself to tell his wife (Alex Borstein, the voice of Lois on “Family Guy” TV series) that he’s lost his job as a photographer at Sears, while his three children run the gauntlet from the cute and scheming Bo (Maxwell Simkins, “About Ray”) to the dorky and embarrassing Charlie (Timothée Chalamet, “ Men, Women & Children ”) to the precocious and sweet Madison (Blake Baumgartner).

Directed by Jessie Nelson (“I Am Sam”) with screenwriting assistance Steven Rogers (“Kate & Leopold,” “P.S. I Love You,” “Stepmom”), Love the Coopers has it’s share of schmaltz, but that attribute is what keeps it from going completely into the discount gift bin at Wal-Mart. This is because the so-called comedic moments mostly deflate before our very eyes (the family dog, “Rags” eats everything in sight; Madison calls everyone a “dick” and Charlie and his girlfriend kiss each other like two mentally-deranged slobbering guppies). With its heavy emphasis on the dramatic, the movie takes kind of a different approach with this material. To begin with here’s an extensive use of narration (provided by Steve Martin) that let’s us know the characters’ internal motivations. It also relies on the flashback to clues us into what exactly set the characters off on the tangent that affects them in the present.

The most powerful of these sequences is when Charlotte and Sam remember the early stages of their romance and how they were before children, jobs, bitterness and life intervened. We also see how Emma first allowed her jealousy to first overtake her love for her sibling. Arkin gets a few nice scenes, too, especially when he discusses classic films (“City Lights” and “Born Yesterday,” among them) with Ruby, and Wilde rides an emotional roller coaster trying to build an emotional wall against Joe all the while falling for him. And, despite the genre regurgitation, there are some very nice moments.

Unfortunately, Nelson sees fit to also populate Love the Coopers with some completely ridiculous situations (an addled aunt, June Squibb, “ Nebraska ,” breaks wind during a family prayer; Madison becomes disillusioned when see sees multiple Santas on the street; and, the worst of which sees Wilde running through a crowded hospital — yes, the picture ends in the emergency room — knocking down everyone in her way — including an assumed severely injured patient on a gurney — just to get to Joe before everyone dances their troubles away in the infirmary cafeteria. Oh, what could have been.

Tagged: argument , Christmas , family , holiday

I have been a movie fan for most of my life and a film critic since 1986 (my first published review was for "Platoon"). Since that time I have written for several news and entertainment publications in California, Utah and Idaho. Big fan of the Academy Awards - but wish it would go back to the five-minute dinner it was in May, 1929. A former member of the San Diego Film Critics Society and current co-host of "The Movie Guys," each Sunday afternoon on KOGO AM 600 in San Diego with Kevin Finnerty.

Movie Review: Despicable Me 3 (2017) Movie Review: Transformers: The Last Knight (2017) Movie Review: All Eyez On Me (2017) Movie Review: The Mummy (2017) Movie Review: Baywatch (2017) Movie Review: King Arthur: Legend of the Sword (2017) Movie Review: The Promise (2016)

'Movie Review: Love the Coopers (2015)' has 1 comment

November 19, 2015 @ 9:11 pm wheatley empire

Really how hard is it to write a holiday movie that isn’t hopelessly contrived and stupid? The last one that I saw that captured the Christmas spirit was Elf and that was 15 years ago.

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• DVD & Streaming

Love the Coopers

• Comedy , Drama

Content Caution

In Theaters

• November 13, 2015
• Diane Keaton as Charlotte Cooper; John Goodman as Sam Cooper; Olivia Wilde as Eleanor; Amanda Seyfried as Ruby; Marisa Tomei as Emma; Anthony Mackie as Officer Percy Williams; Ed Helms as Hank Cooper; Alex Borstein as Angie; Jake Lacy as Joe Bailey; June Squibb as Aunt Fishy; Alan Arkin as Bucky; Timothée Chalamet as Charlie; Maxwell Simkins as Bo; Blake Baumgartner as Madison; Molly Gordo as Lauren; Steve Martin as the voice of Rags

Home Release Date

• February 9, 2016
• Jessie Nelson

Distributor

Movie review.

Christmas is supposed to be a season that brings “tidings of comfort and joy.” That’s certainly what the rollicking old carol “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen” proclaims. But for some families, the holidays stir up ghosts of Christmas past, memories of better times … and deep pain. Instead of bringing comfort and joy, Christmas comes freighted with discomfort and despair—not to mention dysfunction and deception.

So it is with the Coopers, a family with a lot of unresolved relational baggage—not exactly the kind of packages anyone wants to unwrap.

Sam and Charlotte have been holding their failing marriage together for a long time. Their union has endured 40 years, six months and three days, we’re told by our omniscient narrator, the Coopers’ loyal dog, Rags. But three decades before, Sam had planned a dream trip to Africa that never happened. Instead, bills happened. And life. And death. And conflict. (Charlotte’s never cared much about her husband’s longing to travel someplace exotic with her.)

So they’ve decided to call it quits. But not, Charlotte insists, until after one last yuletide celebration. “I want the kids to have the memory of one last perfect Christmas,” she begs. Sam agrees to pretend that everything’s OK. But it isn’t.

Not surprisingly, the Cooper offspring also have a hard time telling the truth. There’s Hank, a single father of three (Charlie, Bo and Madison) who doesn’t have the heart to tell his family (or his ex-wife, Angie) that he’s been laid off. Then there’s Eleanor, who’s never gotten over a breakup years before—or, for that matter, her sense that she’s always a disappointment to her mother. So when she meets a charming soldier named Joe at an airport bar, flirting leads to Eleanor hatching a crazy gambit: impressing Mom by bringing Joe home and introducing him as her new boyfriend.

Charlotte’s never-married sister, Emma, also struggles with lifelong resentment toward her older sibling. But when she gets arrested for shoplifting a Christmas gift for big sis (because Emma resents having to spend any money on Charlotte), it’s not clear she’s even going to make it for dinner. (Doing so will require sweet-talking taciturn police officer Percy Williams out of taking her to jail.)

And this being an ensemble dramedy, we’re not done yet.

Bucky (Charlotte and Emma’s father) spends his lonely days (after his wife’s passing) hanging out at a diner, tended to faithfully by an equally lonely waitress. Ruby and Bucky enjoy each other’s camaraderie—more than either of them will let on, in fact. So when Bucky finds out Ruby’s moving away to try to jumpstart her disappointing life, he’s furious. So furious he … invites her to come with him to the Coopers’ for Christmas.

If all that sounds like a recipe for a heaping helping of conflict for Christmas dinner, well, it most certainly is.

Positive Elements

Early on, Sam and Charlotte play with their granddaughter, Madison, in the snow. Rags notes how we often miss the significance of such terrific moments in life. In other words, experiencing and embracing happiness is an elusive thing, the movie says, because when we’re most joyful, we may not be paying attention.

Each character remembers key moments in the past when he or she was happy. And as the story progresses, most of them gradually realize that they’re having good moments right now , too, even in their messy present. To embrace those moments, these family members must unclench their grip on old grievances. Though the film never talks about forgiveness, per se, it does convey a sense that happiness requires letting go of the stuff that hurt us so we can be aware of the best things happening now.

That theme is paired with the observation that true intimacy and lasting companionship doesn’t magically evolve in marriage. In Sam and Charlotte’s sad relationship, both have refused to let go of decades-old disappointments. Rags says of that emotional erosion, “It was about the thousand microscopic hurts that accumulate over 40 years.” In the end, though, Sam and Charlotte realize that they really do still love each other, even though their union hasn’t been as perfect as Charlotte had hoped—or as she’d frequently wanted the world to believe.

Speaking of Charlotte’s perfectionist tendencies, both her daughter (Eleanor) and her sister (Emma) ultimately have confrontational heart-to-heart talks with her about how she’s hurt them—something Charlotte has never really grappled with.

Eleanor, for her part, has walled off her heart, preferring to live vicariously through others’ emotions. But Joe connects with her, getting underneath her thick emotional armor, and a real romance blossoms even as they pretend to be in one. Eleanor is also self-aware about her significant flaws and her ambivalence toward her family. “Doesn’t it suck how we want to run from our families and impress them at the same time?” she asks. A moment later, she says her attitude toward her family might be best summed up by her made-up word anticipointment : She longs for their approval, but she suspects she probably won’t get it.

Hank has lessons to learn about being honest, too. He can’t pay alimony due to his financial woes, and he laments, “I was a failure at marriage; I don’t want to be a failure at divorce.” Bucky, especially, encourages him to keep trying.

Bucky and Ruby enjoy a sweet relationship, with the older man often giving her movies to watch so they can talk about them. Theirs is not a romance, but rather a tender, innocent, grandfather-granddaughter kind of love. He tries to convince Ruby that everyone feels sadness and loneliness sometimes, and that simply moving someplace new won’t solve her problems.

Spiritual Elements

Joe and Eleanor are spiritual opposites, with each mocking the other’s convictions. Joe is a conservative Republican Christian soldier, and those elements clash with Eleanor’s aggressively liberal atheism. She’s a big believer in evolution; she says the closest she’s ever gotten to God was listening to jazz singer Nina Simone; and she summarizes Christianity by saying it’s God telling us, “Love me most, or go to hell.”

But while Eleanor playfully mocks Joe’s faith, the film at tries to reserve judgment. And eventually Eleanor confesses to Joe that she actually finds his faith attractive. As the Cooper clan digs in to eat Christmas dinner, Joe says they need to say grace … while giving a nod to the various beliefs of others. (His prayer is interrupted by a jarring abuse of Jesus’ name.)

Christmas carols turn up throughout the movie. They’re even sung by the family, and the majority of them aren’t secular carols like “Jingle Bells.” Instead, we hear songs that focus on the real reason for the season, such as “Silent Night,” “We Three Kings,” “Little Drummer Boy,” “Angels We Have Heard on High” and “Joy to the World.” Sam’s a Scrooge in that he deliberately mis-sings some carols, which always prompts correction from Charlotte.

Sexual Content

Eleanor and Joe share passionate kisses. She confesses to him that she has been having an ongoing affair with a married man. Charlie, who’s in high school, is determined to kiss a girl named Lauren. He visits her at the mall where she’s working, telling himself internally, “Don’t look at her boobs,” which of course he does. (She’s wearing a cleavage-revealing outfit.) They eventually kiss … a lot … sloppily and intensely. We see her practically crawl on top of him as they make out.

Sam and Charlotte also make out. He fondly references his “first time” with her. We see them changing their pants. (She’s in leggings and a long shirt, he’s in boxers.) Elsewhere, we hear that Hank got Angie (now his ex-wife) pregnant when they were in high school.

There’s talk of Percy being gay “only in bed.” It’s hinted that he’s hidden his lifestyle choices to avoid his demanding mother’s censure.

Bucky tells Hank he just needs to go out and have sex to get over his divorce. “Don’t let one woman define your life,” he says. Sam relates an orgasm joke to a Christmas carol’s lyrics. Bucky jokes about an aging woman’s breasts. A young boy tells a girl, “Show me yours, I’ll show you mine.” She lifts up her dress, revealing tights and a full-length slip; he runs away leaving her feeling taken advantage of. Gingerbread cookies “wear” g-strings.

Violent Content

Charlie gets punched by Lauren’s ex. Charlie’s little brother, Bo, imagines yanking his brother’s assailant’s pants down, then decking him. Bucky notices scars on Ruby’s wrists that imply she’s attempted suicide.

Crude or Profane Language

One s-word. “P—y” is used once as a putdown. We hear “h—” and variants of “d–n” twice each. Little Madison has gotten into the habit of telling people, “You’re such a d–k!” a phrase we hear from her twice. (It’s implied that she picked up the vulgarity from her dad, who uses it once). There are at least two dozen misuses of God’s name. (Several times His name is paired with “d–n”). Jesus’ is abused once.

Drug and Alcohol Content

Joe and Eleanor have drinks (martinis, shots) at the airport bar. There’s wine at Christmas dinner and a joke about hard eggnog. While talking with a teen who admits he’s been busted for smoking weed, Sam and Charlotte joke about their drug use back in the ’60s.

Other Negative Elements

Rude jokes are made about a Christmas dish that gives a child diarrhea. Rags’ flatulence drives the Cooper family from the dining room.

Christmas can be a time when we want everything to be perfect. Charlotte Cooper definitely does. But what if everything isn’t just so? What if, under the surface, insecurities and old hurts and unresolved conflict still linger? Those are the kinds of questions Love the Coopers digs into, sprinkling comedy into the struggles this family faces.

Family is the place where we expect and long for unconditional love. And when it doesn’t happen, the resulting wounds can go deep. In Eleanor’s case, it prompts her to say to Joe, “Sometimes I think that I might be unlovable.”

The temptation with such wounds is not to tell the truth about them, because telling the truth is risky. Lying—whether in “little white” ways or via whoppers like Eleanor and Joe’s concocted romance—seems safer. What Love the Coopers does effectively is show how “playing it safe” through such deception ultimately makes us feel more alienated and isolated from those whose love and affirmation we long for the most.

“Don’t we all sort of struggle with this fraud complex?” actor Ed Helms (who plays Hank) asked in an interview with USA Today . “Everyone is afraid of being exposed for everything that they are. We present a sort of edited version of ourselves to the world, especially with our families, where there’s just so much baggage and so much expectation. When you get to explore that, it’s actually kind of uplifting because it reinforces that we’re in this together. We’re all kind of stumbling through and just trying to make the best of it. … There’s frustration, there’s love, there’s support, there are long-held grudges, but ultimately, there’s this sense that we’re actually better off all being together.”

That is indeed the core message in Love the Coopers . We’re better off together. Better off telling the truth than lying. Better off trusting that our family can accept us just as we are than trying so hard to pretend we’re in better shape than we really are.

The core content in the movie, though, is another Christmas story. It’s not Bad Santa , thankfully. Not even close. But foul and profane language, along with some sexual stuff still treat those mashed potatoes on the table in just about the same way Rags does. And slobber like that doesn’t make the big meal nearly as appetizing as you’d like it to be.

Adam R. Holz

After serving as an associate editor at NavPress’ Discipleship Journal and consulting editor for Current Thoughts and Trends, Adam now oversees the editing and publishing of Plugged In’s reviews as the site’s director. He and his wife, Jennifer, have three children. In their free time, the Holzes enjoy playing games, a variety of musical instruments, swimming and … watching movies.

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Love the coopers.

• Common Sense Says
• Parents Say 2 Reviews
• Kids Say 6 Reviews

Common Sense Media Review

All-star holiday comedy is too uneven to be memorable.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that Love the Coopers is an ensemble holiday dramedy about three generations of a Pittsburgh family who gather for Christmas (the cast includes (Alan Arkin, John Goodman, Ed Helms, Olivia Wilde, Diane Keaton, and many more). Heavily narrated and featuring nearly a dozen characters …

Why Age 14+?

One of each of the following: "bulls--t," "s--t," "godd

Adults spend a lot of time drinking at a bar, and then an entire family has cham

An older married couple reminisces about their first time; a younger couple kiss

TGI Friday's, McDonald's, iPhone.

An elderly man looks dead, but he just needs to be hospitalized.

Any Positive Content?

Clear messages about the importance of strong family relationships and valuing h

Bucky encourages Ruby to see what a wonderful woman she is and helps Hank realiz

One of each of the following: "bulls--t," "s--t," "goddamn," "damn it," "Christ" (as an exclamation), "p---y," "stupid," "loser."

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Adults spend a lot of time drinking at a bar, and then an entire family has champagne and wine at dinner. The elder Coopers recall their pot smoking.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

An older married couple reminisces about their first time; a younger couple kisses a few times. Adults discuss adultery and being the "other woman."

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Products & Purchases

Violence & scariness.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Positive Messages

Clear messages about the importance of strong family relationships and valuing honesty and communication. But themes include divorce, adultery, marriage, unemployment, abandonment, and loss -- as well as dementia, kleptomania, and loneliness.

Positive Role Models

Bucky encourages Ruby to see what a wonderful woman she is and helps Hank realize that he needs to move past his insecurities and want his ex-wife to be happy.

Parents need to know that Love the Coopers is an ensemble holiday dramedy about three generations of a Pittsburgh family who gather for Christmas (the cast includes ( Alan Arkin , John Goodman , Ed Helms , Olivia Wilde , Diane Keaton , and many more). Heavily narrated and featuring nearly a dozen characters (including the family dog), the movie deals with some mature themes, including divorce, adultery, marriage, unemployment, abandonment, and loss -- in addition to adolescence, dementia, kleptomania, and loneliness. While there are some silly gags and several scatological jokes about poop, body odor, etc., most of the movie is focused on adult relationship issues that likely won't appeal to teens. Adults also drink casually and discuss their sexual history. There's occasional strong language (including "s--t" and "p---y") and some passionate kissing, including teens who kiss in a silly but graphic way (tongues out). To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

Where to Watch

Videos and photos.

Parent and Kid Reviews

• Parents say (2)
• Kids say (6)

Based on 2 parent reviews

Not memorable and a bit boring

Predictable holliday story laced with unused talent., what's the story.

LOVE THE COOPERS is the story of the titular Cooper clan. Charlotte ( Diane Keaton ) and Sam ( John Goodman ) are hosting their family Christmas in Pittsburgh, even though their marriage is coming to an end. Their children -- unemployed, divorced dad of three Hank ( Ed Helms ) and single playwright Eleanor ( Olivia Wilde ) -- are both dealing with personal and professional crises, as is Charlotte's younger sister, Emma ( Marisa Tomei ), who has been arrested for shoplifting, and grandpa Bucky ( Alan Arkin ), who's mourning the thought of his best friend, young diner waitress Ruby ( Amanda Seyfried ), moving out of town.

Is It Any Good?

This entry in the "dysfunctional family reunion" subgenre is surprisingly unfunny and -- with the exception of a few sweet moments -- a waste of the ensemble cast's considerable talents. The entire film looks so dark and grim that audiences may wonder whether they're watching it through a washed-out filter. It's that unsettling. And most of the characters' ages don't make any sense. Keaton and Tomei have a 20-year age difference but play sisters (not impossible, but unlikely!), and Arkin is only a decade older than Keaton. He'd be more believable as Keaton's husband than her dad. On top of the obvious age discrepancies, the movie suffers from a predictable, plodding script and remarkably unlikable characters.

Wilde gets a lot of screen time as Eleanor, a writer who's sick of Charlotte wondering when she's going to settle down. At the airport bar, Eleanor meets a handsome soldier (Jake Lacey) with whom she shares an instant attraction. They end up pretending they're together so Eleanor can get through the night with her parents. There are many other subplots, including a vaguely romantic connection between Ruby and Bucky, who goes to the diner daily just to talk to her, and a strange police-car dialogue between Emma and the cop who arrests her ( Anthony Mackie ). But it never adds up to anything meaningful. It's a shame that a movie with so many memorable actors could fall so flat.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about the popularity of holiday movies . How does Love the Coopers compare to other holiday films about families? Why do you think holiday movies about families tend to feature so many mix-ups and feuds?

How do the many family members deal with their assorted problems? Which relationships seem healthy? Which seem unhealthy?

Would you have been interested in seeing this movie if the cast had included lesser-known actors?

Movie Details

• In theaters : November 13, 2015
• On DVD or streaming : February 9, 2016
• Cast : Alan Arkin , John Goodman , Diane Keaton
• Director : Jessie Nelson
• Inclusion Information : Female directors, Female actors
• Studio : CBS Films
• Genre : Comedy
• Topics : Holidays
• Run time : 106 minutes
• MPAA rating : PG-13
• MPAA explanation : thematic elements, language and some sexuality
• Last updated : July 22, 2024

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

Suggest an Update

What to watch next.

Love Actually

Home for the Holidays

The Family Stone

Pieces of April

This Is Where I Leave You

Romantic comedies, best holiday movies for kids, related topics.

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Love the Coopers Reviews

I don't understand this movie.

Full Review | Apr 29, 2020

It was a mildly enjoyable dumb.

The time spent exploring each character arc is unbalanced, costing exposition and development in some cases, while over-indulging others.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Apr 17, 2019

Love the Coopers is a disastrous holiday film, filled with false cheer and contrived drama meant to bring everyone together, but will only drive you away.

Full Review | Original Score: 1/5 | Apr 5, 2019

One suspects the filmmakers aimed to bring edifying tears to audiences' eyes by the end, but with its overly sentimental approach, LOVE THE COOPERS also puts viewers at risk of hating themselves come the next morning.

Full Review | Original Score: D+ | Mar 30, 2019

This Yuletide bomb isn't a movie to watch as much as survive.

Full Review | Original Score: 1/4 | Dec 29, 2018

Alas, this star-studded, multi-stranded misfire fails on all fronts.

Full Review | Original Score: 1/5 | Oct 26, 2017

... a searing portrait of holiday-driven despair, a ruthless and harrowing look at emotional burnout and the soul-crushing playacting demanded by the holiday season.

Full Review | Oct 9, 2017

Taking what should be recognition of love and family and the fortune of being happy and healthy and together and disemboweling that of its guts and soul has created the most nihilistic holiday film of all time.

Full Review | Original Score: F | Aug 16, 2017

If you think this looks like an uplifting Christmas story about the love of family, think again. Sure, it wants to be, but instead it's a depressing mess.

Full Review | Mar 23, 2017

There was something about Love the Coopers that didn't just leave me cold and disappointed... it also made me mad.

Full Review | Original Score: 0.5/5 | Jan 10, 2017

The ensemble give the scant material their all, and this may be Olivia Wilde's most impressive performance to date, but the contrived plot, forced sentimentality and painfully predictable climax overshadow their work.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Jul 25, 2016

Love the Coopers reminds us that there are few things worse than booze-fuelled family gatherings, but one of them is definitely schmaltzy Hollywood movies about such reunions.

Full Review | Original Score: 1/5 | Apr 6, 2016

Charmless, confusing and utterly embarrassing, this could and should have been a lot more than just another run-of-the-mill Christmas flick which we're soon to forget.

Full Review | Original Score: 1.5/5 | Mar 31, 2016

Only occasionally does a moment ring true, thanks largely to talented actors subduing a balky script like parents wrestling a petulant kid onto Santa's lap.

Full Review | Original Score: 2 of 5 | Mar 26, 2016

Full of embarrasing scenes that make you cringe, it's a shame that its director couldn't do best with the film's talented cast. [Full Review in Spanish]

Full Review | Original Score: 4/10 | Mar 2, 2016

It's a terrible waste of talent. Bah, humbug.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | Feb 23, 2016

It may take more risks than your standard Hallmark Channel Christmas movie, but for a holiday film, there's such little faith placed in our characters to live and breath.

Full Review | Original Score: C- | Feb 20, 2016

"Love the Coopers" isn't immune to a few over-the-top moments and it never met a well-trodden plot device it didn't like, but its unabashed heart and hopefulness is akin to a warm, cozy knitted throw.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Feb 5, 2016

Lots of photogenic folks serve up white whine, usually weak laughs, or suddenly candid chats with strangers. The Hollywood contrivances are cringing. Dundering in its efforts to melt your heart to slush.

Full Review | Jan 9, 2016

Review: It’s hard to like the messy and overdone ‘Love the Coopers’

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In the fractured-family holiday movie “Love the Coopers,” hackneyed humor and warmed-over life lessons are strewn like so much overused tinsel.

Christmas dinner hosts Charlotte (Diane Keaton) and Sam (John Goodman), their senile aunt (June Squibb) in tow, haven’t told their soon-to-be-visiting kids — unloved playwright Eleanor (Olivia Wilde) and out-of-work divorcee Hank (Ed Helms) — that they’re separating. Charlotte’s envious sister Emma (Marisa Tomei), meanwhile, gets caught shoplifting for a Christmas present. She’s arrested by a cop (Anthony Mackie) who needs mothering. And irascible Cooper patriarch Bucky (Alan Arkin) is upset that his favorite diner waitress, Ruby (Amanda Seyfried), the daughter he wishes he had, is quitting. And, hey, why not make Ruby the girl Hank once pined for from afar, and Hank’s ex (Alex Borstein) a harridan who spits food when she eats?

The celebrity soup that is “Love the Coopers” is, indeed, a mess, the kind in which the screenplay by Steven Rogers — cramming in teenage first love, closeted homosexuality, old-age flatulence, a swearing grandchild and more — is made more chaotic by Jessie Nelson’s tonally smeary direction. The frenzied first part that cross-cuts among the dread-filled Cooper clan is so haphazardly shot and edited it takes half the movie to assess who’s who. Only Wilde’s airport story line, in which Eleanor persuades a cute Army-guy stranger (Jake Lacy) to be her fake boyfriend, has a frisson of romantic-comic appeal, despite making little sense.

A big irritant is that the film is over-narrated. (The voice is Steve Martin’s.) It explains everybody’s eccentricities and baggage (“Aware of the growing distance between her parents …”) at the same time the actors are frantically trying to show us. Occasionally a humiliated character actually breaks apart on screen, because CGI apparently clarifies all. When Arkin gives a spirited, heartfelt pep talk to Seyfried, not only does the narration tell us Bucky feels youthful again — because why trust a great actor to convey that? — but also the filmmakers go so far as to replace Arkin briefly with a younger actor. This is a movie that would give you a wrapped present and say: “It’s a wallet. It holds money.”

By the time this laugh-free movie arrives at its Christmas dinner scene, “Love the Coopers” has force-fed you so much cutesy unhappiness, and clued you in so clearly to its blueprint for togetherness that there’s zero tension or release. All that’s left is for a bunch of skilled, flailing actors, barely given the chance to make you believe they’re related, to go through the motions of ho-ho-ho-hum reconciliation.

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‘Love the Coopers’

MPAA rating: PG-13, for thematic elements, language, sexuality

Running time: 1 hour, 47 minutes

Playing: In general release

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'Love the Coopers' Movie Review: A Heavy-Hitting Cast Doesn't Make It a Christmas Classic

Get the review of the film,which stars a who's who of A-listers.

— -- Starring Alan Arkin , Marissa Tomei, and Diane Keaton

Rated PG-13

Three out of five stars

You may fall in like -- not love -- with parts of this uneven romantic holiday comedy.

It feels like it’s been a while since we’ve had a big, splashy Christmas movie about a dysfunctional family who hates getting together for the holidays, but in the end realizes family is the most important thing in the world. In "Love the Coopers," we don’t have an instant Christmas classic, but it’s hardly a lump of coal.

The first thing you can’t help but notice is the massive, fantastic ensemble cast: three Oscar-winners in Alan Arkin, Marissa Tomei, and Diane Keaton; Oscar nominee June Squibb; Golden Globe winner John Goodman ; Ed Helms , Olivia Wilde , Amanda Seyfried , Anthony Mackie, Alex Borstein. That’s an embarrassment of riches, and doesn’t even take into account Steve Martin as the narrator.

So how is this film not an automatic home run? Let’s examine.

"Love the Coopers" keeps its ensemble in pairs for most of the movie. Goodman and Keaton -- the Coopers at the center of it all -- are a couple barely keeping it together after 40 years of marriage. Seyfried and Arkin play a waitress and customer who share a strong bond. Tomei gets arrested by Mackie for shoplifting, and Wilde and Jake Lacy are strangers who meet at an airport bar.

If the movie centered only on Wilde and Lacy, with everyone else in the background, you’d have the best romantic comedy of the year. He’s a new military recruit about to ship out but stuck at the airport on Christmas Eve, while she just landed but is killing time at the airport bar rather than go home to yet again disappoint her parents. Wilde and Lacy have fantastic chemistry, and director Jessie Nelson knows it, as evidenced by her really long, really tight close-ups of Wilde’s stunning face. This couple has the best lines, best banter, and best story of any of the film’s couples, thought Seyfried and Arkin run a close second.

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That latter story should be one of the movie’s creepier aspects –- it’s basically a love story between 81-year-old Arkin and 29-year-old Seyfried, but it’s very sweetly handled. Their story, and also the Wilde/Lacy storyline, demonstrates writer Steven Rogers really shines in exploring the space of two people who are connecting, but haven’t yet coupled.

Unfortunately, we also have to spend time checking in on the other couples, and they’re just downers. Keaton and Goodman are locked in this space where their characters have said they’re going to break up but it’s never really clear why, other than the fact they’ve grown apart. And sure, that may be reason enough after 40 years of marriage, but it’s not much fun to watch. And the storyline between Tomei and Mackie is just a waste of two fantastic actors. She’s a jealous, needy con artist whose character is undeveloped, while he’s a robotic cop with a secret who has so little to do, the role could have been played by anyone. Their parts could have (and should have) been edited out of the movie altogether.

By the way, if you’re as confused by the title as I was, you’ll learn from watching the film that it should actually be “Love, the Coopers.” As in that’s how they sign a Christmas card. But since it’s missing the comma, “Love the Coopers” is really more of a demand. One I won’t give in to.

I like the Coopers. Some of them, I like a lot. Two teens kissing in the film should definitely win Best Kiss at next year’s MTV Movie Awards, and I could watch Olivia Wilde and Jake Lacy flirt all day. I hope someone sees this and makes that movie. But I don’t love the Coopers. Ultimately there’s enough good here to balance out the uneven, so "Love the Coopers" ends up being enjoyable enough. Kind of like getting a cheap sweater for Christmas -– it’s warm and fuzzy and feels good at first, but then you notice some hanging strings. And when you pull them, the sleeve falls off.

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Review: 'Love the Coopers' is a bunch of ho-ho-hokum

Love the Coopers ? Please.

Modern holiday films hit a new low with this trite and predictable dramedy (*1/2 out of four; rated PG-13; in theaters Friday) that buries its few bright spots under a heap of fruitcakes. True, most Christmas flicks tend toward the trite and predictable naturally but they just don’t have to be quite this insufferable.

Director Jessie Nelson ( I Am Sam ) juggles various interweaving story lines involving four generations of the Cooper clan in Pittsburgh. Sam (John Goodman) and Charlotte (Diane Keaton) are going caroling, readying to host the big annual family get-together but also preparing to perhaps split up.

Oh, but there are plenty of other complications before everybody sits down to dinner.

Sam and Charlotte’s unemployed mall-photographer son Hank is keeping his lack-of-job status on the downlow from his kids and soon-to-be ex (Alex Borstein). The family’s elder statesman Bucky (Alan Arkin) lives for visiting his favorite waitress Ruby (Amanda Seyfriend), though she’s about to head off for Hot Coffee, Miss. (which is an actual place). Charlotte’s younger sister Emma (Marisa Tomei) gets busted for shoplifting and is arrested by a stoic cop (Anthony Mackie). And Eleanor (Olivia Wilde), who understandably is hiding out at the airport avoiding her mom Charlotte and the rest of these nuts, meets cute soldier Joe (Jake Lacy) and enlists him to be her pretend boyfriend before he gets deployed.

Featuring Steve Martin as the narrator trying desperately to make sense of all this,  Love the Coopers is the latest holiday-centric movie trying to be Love Actually with a litany of intertwining plots and high-profile actors to spare — see also: Valentine’s Day , New Year’s Eve , etc.

And another bites the dust, mostly this time because of humor that totally misses the mark. Most of the actors, Goodman and Arkin especially, deserve better but are hamstrung by Steven Rogers’ largely unfunny script. It has potential at times, like in the slightly sweet relationship between Bucky and Ruby, but often devolves to farting-dog gags, a sex joke involving a popular Christmas carol and more awkward make-out sessions than your average junior prom.

The silver lining in a movie like this with so many tales going is at least one will rise above the rest. In Coopers , it’s that of Eleanor and Joe: Right smack in the middle of a bad movie, Wilde and Lacy have excellent chemistry as a woman unlucky in love and a guy nice enough to see that complete opposites attract.

They’re the anomaly, though, in a series of unfortunate events that leads to a Christmas-y conclusion. All the seasonal stereotypes are present and accounted for — from Santas riding the subway to a dog wearing a sweater adorned with a Star of David — and there’s even a passing reference to It’s a Wonderful Life , a reminder of the holiday film you should have watched instead.

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Love The Coopers Review

What kind of title is Love The Coopers , anyway? Does it represent the bland sentimentalities of a Hallmark card hastily signed on the way to your parents’ house? Is it meant as a plea to audiences, a last-ditch effort to get you to care about its disparate collection of thinly constructed personalities? This overwrought family Christmas comedy is as devoid of nuance as its plain title suggests. Worse than that, Love The Coopers is overly familiar and exceedingly dull despite its warm, genial cast.

In the snowy suburbs around Pittsburgh, four generations of the Cooper family prepare for their annual Christmas gathering. Charlotte (Diane Keaton) and Sam (John Goodman) hope to keep their rocky marriage and impending divorce a secret long enough to host one last, happy family holiday dinner. Their son Hank (Ed Helms), meanwhile, contends with his own marital and parenting issues while keeping his unemployment a secret from ex-wife Angie (Alex Borstein).

Elsewhere, Charlotte and Sam’s daughter Eleanor (Olivia Wilde) kills time at the airport bar, afraid to once again face her parents as a single woman. After an hour or so of flirting with a grounded Army veteran (Jake Lacy), she asks if he’ll help her evade an awkward situation by pretending to be her boyfriend.

Any one of these storylines could have served as the main focus for a “comedy” as clichéd as this one. Instead, Love The Coopers crams these dilemmas alongside sister Emma‘s (Marisa Tomei) envy-fueled bout with kleptomania, father Bucky’s (Alan Arkin) anguish over Ruby the waitress (Amanda Seyfried), Charlie’s (Timothée Chalamet) teenage love drama, Bo’s (Maxwell Simkins) pursuit of a perfect Christmas gift, and Aunt Fishy’s (June Squibb) worsening dementia. There’s also a potty-mouthed toddler (Blake Baumgartner), a gay police officer (Anthony Mackie), and enough schmaltz to make Garry Marshall gag. It’s a ridiculously convoluted assemblage.

It can be painful watching Love The Coopers ’ script bend over backward to accommodate its ensemble cast. Storylines are sloppily connected by an omniscient narrator that introduces new scenes with a ham-fisted, “Ruby remembered…,” or a, “As Aunt Fishy slept…,” in order to spoon feed its audience the basic conflicts. When ensemble films without a protagonist succeed – such as in Love Actually – the characters are precisely defined with unique characteristics. Here, the Coopers are no more complex than their occupation and marital status.

From her boozy perch, Eleanor likes to spot strangers in the midst of moments of authentic happiness. Over the course of Love The Coopers ’ 106-minute runtime, the movie consistently fails to replicate that feeling of authenticity. Each character is painted with the broadest strokes, single-mindedly occupied with one need. Whether it’s creating the illusion of a happy Christmas, or pretending to be in a happy relationship, the characters here lie to one another or admit to truths entirely in service of the film’s plot.

How Love The Coopers manages to squander a cast as affable and richly talented as this one is perhaps the movie’s most stunning achievement. Crushed underneath the weight of exposition-soaked dialog and well-worn humor (guess what joke is going to be made about Charlotte’s dump salad), actors as dynamic and charismatic as Keaton, Goodman and Wilde are rendered unrelatable. After Tomei’s Emma calls her arresting officer a “robot,” she stiffly jokes, “Take me to your leader,” apparently unaware of the difference between robots and aliens.

Love The Coopers is riddled with these gaps in basic, human logic. Eleanor claims to be dating a man who turns out to live in the city she’s just flown into. After Grandpa Bucky collapses into his mashed potatoes from a stroke, the film sets its three subsequent romantic climaxes in the hospital’s lobby. The movie is so tone-deaf that it ends with the Coopers merrily dancing away Christmas Eve while an unconscious Alan Arkin lies incapacitated and alone in the other room.

This is a lazily assembled film with almost no redeeming qualities. The Coopers aren’t believable as a family, and to be quite honest, they barely even seem like acquaintances. It’s hard to figure out why they dread spending the holiday together so much, but by the end of the film, you too will find it hard to Love The Coopers .

Will the People Who Say They Love Cinema the Most Come Back to the Movies?

The summer blockbuster season proved that the movie audience is still very much there. But where have all the cinema lovers gone?

By Owen Gleiberman

Owen Gleiberman

Chief Film Critic

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The summer movie season is now all but over, the tea leaves are in, and everyone in the industry is working hard to read them. Sizing up the future of movies, should we be hopeful? Fearful? Somewhere in between?

To recap the signs: There were many big hits this summer (“Deadpool & Wolverine,” “Inside Out 2,” “Despicable Me 4,” “Twisters,” “Bad Boys: Ride or Die,” “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes,” “A Quiet Place: Day One”), and that’s reason to celebrate. News flash: People still like to go to the movies!

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Back in the ’90s, when the blockbuster age was in full swing, with the independent film revolution happening right alongside it, I knew who I was rooting for on a weekly basis. I’ll confess that I sometimes thought of popcorn-movie audiences as the “bad guys,” and the audiences for adventurous indie and foreign films as the “good guys.” The bad guys kept the engine of escapism whirring. But the good guys helped to sustain cinema as an art form. That may sound snobby or unfair, but it’s how I thought of it.

What I would never have expected to see is that formulation turned on its head. To me, the audiences that made hits this summer out of “Inside Out 2” and “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes” are now the good guys. They’re the ones who are keeping cinema, or at least some version of it, alive. But what about the good guys of the ’90s — the adventurous moviegoers whose enthusiasm sparked the rise of indie film? Have they all gone away? No, but sorry, they’ve become the bad guys. Because they’re the ones who are staying home.

As the fall movie season approaches (festivals! awards! quality!), we’ll be gearing up to see some of the best films of the year. But those movies, more and more, are holding on by the skin of their teeth at the box office. In 2023, audiences turned out for “Killers of the Flower Moon” (and, earlier in the year, for “Air”), yet too many of the movies that should have been bigger sensations, like “Poor Things” or “Priscilla” or “Anatomy of a Fall” (or, the year before that, “Tár”), now find themselves relegated to the status of delicate boutique buzz films.

You might say: Those movies do the business they do. There’s no world where they would have been bigger. But I’m saying that we need nothing less than a collective rediscovery of what commercial filmmaking can mean. Yes, it means twisters and bad boys; it means Marvel and horror; it means rom-coms and animated rides. But can’t we envision a world, once again, where it could also mean… drama? (Just look at the business that “It Ends with Us” is doing.) Where the big screen can take two people talking in a room and make them larger than life?

This is partly a business proposition. The need for studios to slash production costs is real. So is the waning of the Peak TV that stole cinema’s mojo. This summer proved, beyond a doubt, that movies are still a hot commodity. The real question ­— not just for now, but for 20 years from now ­— is: What, exactly, is a movie going to be? It’s time that the people who say they love movies the most answered that by showing up for them again.

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