A schmaltzy Christmas - Film - Arts - Evening Standard
       

A schmaltzy Christmas

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If you like schmaltzy, music-saturated family movies, This Christmas will set all the right bells jingling.

An average African-American family, the Whitfields, are celebrating the Yuletide holiday in California.

Mama (Loretta Devine) owns a humble dry-cleaning business. Her lover (Delroy Lindo) appears to have no job at all.

Yet somehow they can afford to employ a jolly Latino maid, keep one of the daughters permanently in college and conjure up thousands of dollars to get a family member out of a jam. Ah well.

The Lord works in mysterious ways and looks after his own - the Whitfields like going to church where, naturally, they take centre stage.

This film is currently number two at the US box office. Presumably that's His doing, too.

This Christmas
Cert: 12A

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