Metacritic reviews

It unfolds with the verve and clarity of a piece of music, carefully composed and passionately played.

With its lovely images of wintertime Paris and its lyrical Michel Legrand music, La Bu^che does take the cake.

By turns hilarious and wounding.

A confection that is ultimately better because of its bitterness.

The fine cast helps an old-fashioned screenplay seem reasonably fresh most of the time.

The plot turns on the complicated lives of the daughters, who are played by Sabine Azema, Emmanuelle Beart, and Charlotte Gainsbourg; they, Fabian, and Rich are the main reasons for seeing this picture.

Sweet but slight pièce de fluff.

Engaging in a soap operatic, rather glib way.

Sweet and insubstantial -- just like the French Christmas cake for which it's named.

Not likely to win any hearts or minds this holiday season, La Bûche finally scores points by virtue of its inoffensiveness: Relax, pour a cuppa nog, and watch somebody else muck up the holidays for once.