Former hotshot actor Ben Affleck made another ill-advised career choice with this pitiful festive comedy. Here he plays rich advertising executive Drew Latham, who finds himself dumped by his tradition-obsessed girlfriend when she's denied Christmas with his family (he doesn't seem to have one). As a result, Latham returns to his former home where he pays the blue-collar Valco family that now lives there to let him spend the holiday period with them as their son. Cue a mess of clichés, pratfalls and limp jokes that feels like National Lampoon at its worst. Although Affleck has proven himself an able comic in the past, here his performance consists of shouting continually while wearing a ridiculous grin. Even co-stars James Gandolfini and Catherine O'Hara as the Valco parents, who at least realise less is more, cannot rescue the movie.

A wealthy executive, Drew Latham (Ben Affleck) has no close relationships and becomes nostalgic for his childhood home as Christmas approaches. When he visits the house and finds another family living there, he offers the residents, Tom Valco (James Gandolfini) and his wife, Christine (Catherine O'Hara), a large sum of money to pretend they are his parents. Soon Drew tests the couple's patience, and, when their daughter, Alicia (Christina Applegate), arrives, things get increasingly tense.