User reviews

A festive movie about family, about values, about love and everything else. With a little twist at the end if you want to call it that. Other than that it is pretty much by the numbers (predictable that is). But it's a fun movie to watch and it's lovely to see another story about family interactions.

If you like that kind of stuff that is. But it's light (drama included of course) and it's fun overall. The acting talent at hand is amazing and it's clear they're having a blast. I guess watching it around Christmas time makes the most sense, but you could also watch it anytime else and still have that good feeling

I think this is one of those movies that you either love or hate. I loved it, my husband hated it. It definitely is a bit of a downer which is why I gave it a 7/10. It's not gonna be a movie that puts you in a holly jolly mood (at least not until the last 15 minutes). So I understand why many people disliked it. But with that said, I found the brutal honesty very charming. It felt real and still managed to have quite a few laughs in the midst of the drama. Very reminiscent of The Family Stone. I think if they hadn't marketed it as a comedy, so that people knew what to expect going in, it would have a better score right now. Something else that I noticed and loved was the way it was filmed. It was very beautifully shot, and there were lots of gorgeous close ups that, to me, made the scenes even better. And I really enjoyed how a few shots were filmed from the perspective of the children as they were running through crowds or stores etc. Very unique and added a little extra something (though maybe I only noticed because I'm a photographer). Probably not something kids will enjoy (there were more than a few in our theater and they didn't seem very interested).

"The main reason Santa is so jolly is because he knows where all the bad girls live." George Carlin

My favorite Christmas movie is Bad Santa, so you know where I'm coming from when I write that Love the Coopers is partly lovable. An upper-class family reunion at Christmas time is Mt. Lebanon, Pa., is fraught with anti-Christmas episodes, barely excluding anyone in the Cooper family from trials that threaten to sabotage completely the elders' attempts to have everything end as in It's a Wonderful Life.

As I reflect on the film family, where even the elders, Charlotte (Diane Keaton) and Sam (John Goodman), have problems—they are divorcing after 40 years, I think of the many challenges of my family, down to grandkids, that threaten to decimate the holiday cheer. However those speed bumps seem to strengthen rather than weaken the family.

The film wisely lets the rough notes be played by the young as well as the old. For example, twenty-something Eleanor (Olivia Wilde) cannot seem to hang on to a man despite her charm and unusually good looks—she's the strongest plot component and deserves more face time. Teen Charlie (Timothee Chalamet) angles for his first kiss while being bullied and humiliated on the path to victory.

Most poignant non-family reveler, Ruby (Amanda Seyfried), has a deep, Platonic connection to patriarch Bucky (Alan Arkin), an odd combination with 50 years between them and a satisfying one at that. It is possible to infer that just about everyone is looking for love, but usually in the wrong places. Although the film does not make that search easy, it has so many funny moments, more than the dark doings should allow, lightening and heightening the aspirations of the characters.

As for the rest of us left with holiday reunions, take comfort: Even the dysfunctional Coopers find enough love to make it through to the next Christmas.

This is by no means a drama, nor a comedy, but I classify it as a dramedy about real life issues. Family members argue. Family members are sometimes uncomfortable around each other. Husbands and wives, fathers and mothers, have ups and downs in their relationships. All families remember good times and bad times and so do the Coopers.

This is not a warm and fuzzy feel good movie that you finish seeing and you are left with an uplifting feeling of happiness . What you will see is a point of view as if you are sitting at the Cooper's dinner table yourself and as hard as you might try to avoid it, you will consciously take a side with one family member over another.

This film has an all star cast and the family and spouses interactions are sometimes intense but honest in their current feelings towards each other. I especially enjoyed all of the scenes between Alan Arkin the Cooper family patriarch and his waitress actress Amanda Seyfried which take place at his favorite diner.

There are too many scenes throughout this film to mention them all but Olivia Wilde and the war veteran she meets at the airport actor Jake Lacey evolved quickly as each of them dug deep into the others psyche, and I wished there was more that we could have listened in on.

I will be sure to watch this again sometime as it is one of those memorable films, not in a good way, but it may help remind us all to forgive, not forget, but to share our feelings and whatever the outcome the truth should come out. I give this dramedy a 7 out of 10 IMDB rating.

This RomCom lacks both humor or romance. One may say it's a dark comedy, but mostly it's just sad. Bits of progressive manifesto are sprinkled throughout the movie with an uneven hand that screams same old formula with a new 21st century face. The main issue with the film is that there are too many story lines, most of which are never worked to denouement. We are left wondering, in many cases, why parts are even added. Then, there are parts which makes you question, why was that even necessary? Tiresome retread characters are abound - see the borderline case of dementia with constant sage lines. Please, I have grandparents with dementia, either don't make light of the issue or don't try to line it with clear one liner tear-jerker intended lines. Thanks but no thanks, I can't recommend this movie.

I thought that the November film to get American audiences in the spirit for the holidays was a Hollywood convention that has recently gone by the wayside. With films like 2008's "Four Christmases" and 2013's double whammy of "The Best Man Holiday" and "Black Nativity," I thought that Hollywood had traded in the cookie-cutter, family-is-everything films for franchise Christmas titles, but apparently, the presence of "Love the Coopers," a film that tries to get us to don our gay apparel early in the month of November, proves me wrong. Despite boasting an incredible ensemble of performers, the film falls prey to the worst conventions of holiday films, as it becomes so invested with cheap pathos, dimestore morals, and downright atrocious narration that it temporarily redirects your anger from premature, non-denominational Starbucks cups and Christmas radio stations before Thanksgiving to the prevalence of rehashed trite now playing in a theater near you.

The film follows four generations of the Cooper family, who are set to gather for the holidays, despite slumping marriages, separating unions, and troubled states of nearly everyone who is attending Christmas dinner. The patriarch and matriarch of the family are Sam and Charlotte (John Goodman and Diane Keaton), who have been married for forty years and are finding themselves in a sea of uncertainty. With that, their children are the single and lonely Eleanor (Olivia Wilde), who coerced a stranger (Jake Lacy) she met at a bar to pose as her longtime boyfriend and the recently fired Hank (Ed Helms), who worked as a family photographer, and is now undergoing a rather hasty divorce amidst finding a new job. Also invited to the festivities are Charlotte's father Bucky (Alan Arkin), his close friend and waitress at his favorite diner Ruby (Amanda Seyfried), who's purpose in the film is questionable at best, Sam's squirrley Aunt Fishy (June Squibb), and Charlotte's unmarried, jealous sister Emma (Marisa Tomei), who is picked up for shoplifting by a police officer (Anthony Mackie), whom she manages to get to confess his true feelings while she is handcuffed in the back of his cruiser.

Before having all of these people occupy one frame, we see their daily lives for the first hour of the film, which, as you can imagine, results in a massive amount of story lines to juggle at once. When anthologies and vignette-style films are smoothly structured and developed, it makes you forget you're watching a film with so many characters (Adam Rifkin's "Look," while more of a drama, is a much better example). It also makes you forget what you're watching is, essentially, an inherently choppy film with several elements of disjointedness. "Love the Coopers" makes the common mistakes of flooding us with too many characters to get to know and care about, and too many scenes that transition from bathroom humor to mawkish morality within a minute or two.

Then there's the problem of there being too many characters and too many plot-strands running with one another and trying to hold the same equitable emotional weight and screen time, rendering "Love the Coopers" less as a film and more a competition of characters. Olivia Wilde and Jake Lacy's storyline alone probably would've made for a likable film, ending with the same conclusion of a large family gathering of her character's parents, but the film chooses to deviate from her enough to focus on too many perspectives at once.

"Love the Coopers" is also guilty of giving A-list actors C-list material. There's no reason stellar supporting performers like John Goodman and June Squibb, whose wonderful work in "Nebraska" has gone from being an Oscar-nominated laugh riot to her being cast as a senile punching bag, need to be gifted with the kind of material most beginning actors would find themselves hard-pressed to accept on the grounds of sheer idiocy. It's sad that so few films, particularly hybrids of both comedy and drama, that boast these amazing casts cannot live up to the sheer magnitude of their star power.

With all this and more, throw in some horrible narration that doesn't justify itself and its pervasive hamfisting of depressingly common morals until the conclusion of the film, and you have "Love the Coopers," the kind of that makes you wish we skipped right from October to January for the sake of our emotional health.

Unsure for the negative reviews, this movie is a moment of reflection and the sad realisation that life moves fast and it won't be appreciated until it's too late.

Yes, it's about a dysfunctional family and equally dysfunctional characters and no, granted there isn't jiggle bells at every turn, tinsel dripping from the mantelpiece but there is absolute warmth and feel good factor about this one. Not every Christmas is about having all the trimmings it's about people and the pressures - A wonderful life broke that cliche. If you've not watched it, give it a go, if you've misunderstood it, give it some attention. Summary, a feel good 'alternative' Christmas movie.

Love the Coopers? I didn't. Neither will you.

The first holiday film of the year arrives with a monumental thud, despite an impressively decorated, and star-studded cast. The dramedy revolves around the matriarch of the Cooper clan (Diane Keaton), who tires to bring her misshapen family together for a final Christmas dinner, before her and her husband of forty years (John Goodman) divorce. Like Love Actually, we jump from storyline to storyline, as we chart the progress of each family member's trek homeward.

Unfortunately, comparing Love the Coopers to any film with the words "love," or "actually" in the title would be an insult to those movies (Love the Coopers being the exception that establishes the rule). Actual jokes with a real set-up and punchline are few and far between, and rarely land anyway. Coopers largely relies on out of place vulgarity in place of comedy, or utilizes site gags that it recycles until there is a permanent dent in the ground where the dead horse used to be.

As far as the movie's attempt at subversive drama, most of the characters are too poorly developed, or unrealistically written to be genuinely compelling. The script occasionally comes close to insight into some of these characters, but sheepishly walks away from the doorbell, instead of knocking down that door. The direction ranges from uninspired to downright disruptive of the film's flow, and the insistence on narrating every plot point and character trait before we actually get to see it, makes watching the film a formality.

There are, maybe, one or two laughs to be had, and perhaps two subplots are somewhat compelling. Bucky (Alan Arkin) and Ruby (Amanda Seyfried) share a couple of scenes in a diner that are at least watchable, and Arkin turns in fairly solid performance. The most fleshed out story belongs to the romance between Eleanor (Olivia Wilde) and Joe (Jake Lacy). There's a real chemistry between the two of them, and there seems to be genuine depth to their characters.There might be a good movie based on their few scenes, if Eleanor weren't such an insufferable jerk.

The real problem with Coopers is that it doesn't seem to have any fun, or good intention. I wouldn't mind the movie if it were just formulaic, and I can tolerate a bad movie. The reason that the film gave me a headache is because it seems to exist solely to grab the money out of your wallet. The film industry is undoubtedly a business, but at least disguise yourself; have some respect for your audience. By the film's end, you know it was sponsored by Southwest Airlines and McDonalds, and you know it went out of it's way to shamelessly appeal to every demographic (Anthony Mackie plays the generic black/gay guy). It's borderline offensive.

Please, for the sake of your health, and for the future of the cinema, stay away from Love the Coopers.

Any number of the films we now think of as unassailable holiday classics -- Christmas in Connecticut, White Christmas, even It's a Wonderful Life -- were dismissed as corny and formulaic in their original reviews, so it's no surprise that Meet the Coopers met the same fate. But I suspect time will be kind to this one: it's warm without being gooey, the humor is sharp and observant, the ensemble is top-notch, and the soundtrack is quite lovely.

If, like me, you're a fan of the dysfunctional-family Christmas comedy (The Ref, La Bûche, A Christmas Tale), this one may well sneak up on you and enter your annual holiday rotation. If I ever get to update my holiday film guide "Have Yourself a Movie Little Christmas," this one would definitely go in.

11 December 2015 Film of Choice at The Plaza Dorchester Tonight - Christmas With The Coopers. If you google this film you come up with Love The Coopers, obviously on the American side of the pond it goes under this name. From the title you can immediately gauge what this film is about. A family, made up of many dysfunctional parts which comes together at Christmas, each hiding their own secrets and fighting their own demons. At the centre of this family we find John Goodman and Diane Keaton, two well established stars who keep this story flowing along as the main protagonists of this fairly mundane plot. However, although it was not a laugh a minute, it was a completely watchable film. Token man in uniform played by Jake Lacy who had one of those faces I feel I've seen before but can't actually place......quite nice to look at though. Narrated by Steve Martin the film comes to a touching and plausible end. A nice easy watch on the run up to Christmas.

I want to start off by saying that I am fairly easy to please when it comes to movies. The last movie I saw was Burnt, which received generally negative reviews, but I loved it. There are several other movies recently that have received poor reviews that I enjoyed, so it is easy for me to enjoy movies. But wow, this movie was terrible. I truly do not believe how such an ensemble of wonderful actors and actresses could agree to star in this.

A few nit picky things- This movie was beyond cliché. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy cliché movies. I actually like some movies that have generic parts. But the formula for this movie made me sick. It was so cheesy and so cliché that I really, truly at one point began to think this was a parody or satire created film that makes fun of generic and cliché movies, but it wasn't! There was no parody aspect to it. It was just terrible.

Now let's talk about the characters. I want to start with Olivia Wilde's character Eleanor. Basically, when she enters the narrator says she has been hurt by love and closes herself off to love. Which means we all know where this is going. Which, again, I like cliché, but this was over the top. What happens is she meets an army man played very well by Jake Lacy. Their "love story" was so unbelievable because she, as the narrator says, was so hurt by love, yet when she meets Joe (played by Jake Lacy) she for some reason pursues him and instantly trust him. It was like as soon as the narrator said "She could never love again," she instantly falls in love. And what's more, she was a terrible character. She was completely disrespectful to Joe and for some reason he was into her. She would insult his political views and character and act high and mighty when she was the one sleeping with a married man and the one hating her family. Next was Amanda Seyfried and Alan Arkin's story. It was totally weird. It felt like she was into a man 60 years older than her and it was weird. He gets angry instantly at her as she says she is moving because of "great waitress opportunity." I just didn't get it. She was totally thrown in there for no reason. Oh, wait. There was a reason. Literally the only reason she was in this move was to be the eye candy for ed Helm's character Hank. That is it. And of course Hank is divorced because no family in stupid movie like this can stay together apparently. The only saving grace in this movie... the reason I gave it a 2 instead of a 1, was John Goodman and Diane Keaton's character Sam and Charlotte. They were on the verge of divorce after 40 years of marriage and i felt their relationship real. They were the only two people in the movie I hoped things would work out. And things do work out for the two, it was a completely stupid, cheesy, and cliché way it worked out, but I am glad it worked out nevertheless. I literally could not care for any character in this movie. It was hard to look past the terrible plot to even see such great actors dive into such terrible plots and scripts And my last, most annoying thing to say about this movie, is it is completely narrated through the dog. Yup, you heard me right. It was narrated by the dog of the family. Such a lazy and terrible way to make the plot continue. I wanted to like this movie. I really did. I love many of the actors and actresses in it. But They could not save this movie from such a terrible plot and passing and such terrible dialogue. Save your money.

Better late than never I always say! Hi I'm Robbie K and this review is on a comedy designed to be a holiday treat for the bunch. The name of the movie is Love the Coopers, which from the trailers looked to be packed with stars who were ready to make you bust a gut with lots of laughs. Of course…we do know that multiple big names in one movie often leads to disaster in terms of quality and plot (Valentine's Day and New Years Eve anyone?). Anyway, let's get started on the review.

For a comedy, Love the Coopers has a bit more wit involved in terms of making you laugh. By wit I don't mean the dry comedy that you have to be in the loop to understand, but more so in how well it is integrated into the story. The dialogue happens naturally, flowing into the normal routine instead of shoving a comedic ploy into our faces. In addition the variety of the jokes helped keep the movie fresh and fun, ranging from sexual innuendos and first time kisses to insults and the art of lying. Even better was how all of these jokes fit into place and worked with the individual's story to further maximize the timing. And yet I think all of it would have failed had it not been for the actor's delivery. Whether it was John Goodman's sarcasm, Olivia Wilde's angst and attitude, or June Squibb playing the clueless aunt it all was maximized by how well they sold the lines. Or in some cases it might have just been a facial expression that got me laughing, primarily from Rags the dog who continues to take the drama and roll with it in some way.

So strong comedy must mean good story right? Wrong! Love the Coopers' plot was very lacking in entertainment for this reviewer. As I feared, the tale was very fragmented with multiple mini-plot lines slowly converging until they all meet in the end. This tactic has worked in the past, but like most modern comedies, they lack balance. Some of these plot lines are strong, taking constant screen time and establishing the backbone. Others however would have their 15 minutes of fame and then not be seen for some time, often hastily concluded with the reunion of plot lines. Fortunately it's all wrapped in a nice Christmas package, however untraditional it is. This isn't the run of the mill, feel good movie that you see on Hallmark though, but instead one that uses the Holiday as a means for character evaluation. Love the Coopers is actually a downer, especially at the beginning where all the problems come to light. Thus with the poor plot and depressing tone, I felt this movie dragged at a lot of the parts, making the 107 minutes feel more like 180 minutes. I'll admit I nearly nodded off a few times as well, so that might be something to take to mind. No surprise…everything comes full circle in the end and you'll get some grand lessons if you keep your mind open, but it certainly isn't the most moving piece I've seen.

As I mentioned earlier, the actors really are the strongest part of this movie. John Goodman was my particular favorite as the big man continues to impress me with his wide spectrum of characters. He's funny, serious, and keeps the stories tethered together and plays exactly like the stereotypical head of the household. Diane Keaton unfortunately was not in my favor this time not so much for her acting, but that her character was so annoying. She's a good counter to Goodman's calmness and a great source of drama, but it was a little too much for me. Olivia Wilde steps back in the light with a decent role that combines sexuality with mischief and uses her gorgeous looks to complete the character. Ed Helms is a little more down to Earth in this film, trading in overacted arrogance and stupidity for a more believable character. It was nice getting to see a more serious side of things, and helps add a bit of awkwardness to an otherwise cut and dry family. Alan Arkin is great as always, though underutilized in my opinion and would have been great to have a few more quips and lessons to add to the mix. Heck even the kids impressed me with how fitting their characters were taking components of a Christmas Story, Christmas Vacation, and a Hallmark kid and wrapping it into one. And Steve Martin as the narrator added a nice tree topper, fitting right in line with the various narrators of classic Christmas stories.

Love the Coopers is an okay film, but certainly isn't your run of the mill Christmas tale. Sure the comedy was a nice variation, and the acting certainly made the characters alive and relevant. Unfortunately this movie was just too monotonous, long-winded and depressing to make this movie fully entertaining. I'm sure you can guess from my review that this movie really isn't worth the trip to the theater, not only due to lack of entertainment but also a lack of special effects. Therefore this reviewer recommends skipping this movie at the time and finding an alternative to this movie.

My scores for this film are:

Comedy: 6.5 Movie Overall: 6.0

I went and saw the film, The Family Stone, in theatres when it first came out. It received mixed reviews, but for the most part, I really liked it. It dealt with a dysfunctional family getting together for the holidays. What made it work, in my mind at least, was that the characters felt honest, the chemistry between the cast felt real and despite the many dramatic moments, it had some heart. Love The Coopers is a poor imitation of these things. I bring up The Family Stone as a apt comparison, not only because Diane Keaton is the matriarch, but because both films try to convey the same message. The Family Stone's shortcomings happens in the final act with the girlfriend "switcheroo" whereas Love The Coopers shortcomings is the entire film.

The film follows one family and their stories on Christmas Day. Keaton and her husband, John Goodman, are having one more family get together before they ultimately decide to leave each other after 40 years of marriage...depressing. Ed Helms is the son, separated from his wife, unemployed and feeling less of a man and even lesser of a father...depressing. Then we have Alan Arkin, the grandfather, who eats at the same diner everyday just to have a conversation with the pretty waitress, Amanda Seyfried, and to convince her she has value in this world....depressing. The beautiful Olivia Wilde plays the daughter. She is on her way home and is wasting time at the airport so she can spend less time with her family. She meets a good looking young soldier and convinces him to come home with her so she doesn't have to be a disappointment to her mother...depressing. On top of that...yes, there is more...we have Diane Keaton's sister, who has a strained relationship and shoplifts some jewelry for a present, only to get caught and have a thoughtful one on one conversation with a police officer...you guessed it....depressing. Did I forget to mention that the sister is played by Marissa Tomei?

Yes, Marissa Tomei, so there lies a big problem for me. The casting of this film is all over the place. It seems they wanted to cast the recognizable face and name and not the role. In this film, we have constant 'flashes of memories' of the characters when they were younger. So we flash to the sisters when they were kids. They are maybe, 3 to 5 years apart. Then we come to the present and discover that the sister is Diane Keaton and Marissa Tomei. They have a 20 year age difference between each other. On top of that Alan Arkin plays their father....he is 12 years older than Keaton. I was so confused as to how Arkin and Tomei fit into the picture for 75% of the film. I thought he was Goodman's brother and Tomei was Keaton's daughter.

While the cast does a decent job in the roles, none of the material is strong enough to hold any weight. None of the stories are engaging and it tries so hard to be emotional. I didn't really care about Goodman and Keaton's failing marriage because it never feels like the characters are really trying, or love each other, or anything at all really. The strained relationship between Keaton and almost everyone feels fake. None of these stories really work for me with the weakest one being Helms. He literally has nothing to do in this film, it's a little sad actually.

Even for a 'depressing' Christmas film, Coopers fails. For it to be depressing, I feel like we need to have some sort of attachment to the characters, I had none. Steve Martin narrates the film to give it a "Christmas story" feel, it also falls a little flat. I just couldn't find myself caring about anything here.

I was not expecting "Gone With The Wind" or "The Godfather," - we just needed a break, something light-hearted - and "Love the Coopers" delivered. There are many scathing reviews about the plot and the characters and the clichés. Evidently what we needed yesterday were clichés - because we enjoyed it.

Yes it was predictable - yes it was cliché ridden, but we have to remember this is a Christmas movie - and in our age of cynicism, foreign threats, daily shootings in the "hood," and politically charged nastiness, sometimes we just need a little break and watch something which is warm- hearted and positive.

If you want nasty "realism" try "August: Osage County" or "Glengarry Glen Ross" - both of those show people at their absolute worst. But if you want a light, uplifting story, "Love the Coopers" will fill the bill.

I have NEVER been so mad for spending money on a movie. 'Love the Coopers' was by far THE worst movie I've ever seen. I was so confused while watching this movie because the storyline was absolutely HORRIBLE! After watching the whole movie, I'm still confused as to what it was about. I think one of the reasons I'm so upset is because so many actors that I adore were hired for this movie, therefore I expected it to be awesome, when in reality, it sucked. Throughout the whole movie, I think I laughed about 7 times, and all 7 of those times were shown in the trailer. The rest of the movie was boring, childish, confusing, and stupid! This was truly one of the worst written movies, and I feel bad for the actors who were in it. I'm telling you, do NOT waste your money on this movie. You will regret it!

Love the Coopers (2015) is a fun, delightful holiday film about a family coming together for Christmas dinner. I loved the ensemble cast. I'm a big fan of most of the actors. Marisa Tomei, Diane Keaton, Olivia Wilde, John Goodman, and others all star as members of the Cooper family. They all give very good performances, I especially loved Olivia Wilde's performance. I loved her storyline with her and her man she met on the way to meet her family. The chemistry between the two is electric, I liked the dialogue between the two, it was both funny at times and sweet and touching. And I also liked following the other family members stories and the script allows for the audience to get invested in the characters and see deep into why they are the way they are. I thought that Marisa Tomei and her storyline with the police officer was very interesting and it really gave a look into her character. Keaton and goodman are great together and I loved their story and seeing them go through what they were going through. Overall love the coopers isn't out of this world, but it is a sweet fun way to spend a couple hours, especially over Christmastime. 7/10 for love the coopers.

At one point, a character in Love the Coopers says to another, "I think you're funny 'cuz you're sad." This sentiment seems to be the guiding force of this "December: Osage County" disaster. Unfortunately, like the movie itself, that quote never plays out as true, and the overbearing sadness never plays out as funny. In one of the most abrasive Christmas films ever made, the message ("Your family is irredeemable and Christmas is a fraud, but what can you do?") makes this movie a snide, depressing burden. This unnaturally overwhelming pessimism is so draining, 20 minutes in I was looking for a way out, something I never do (I sat all the way through Pixels, for crying out loud). Alas, I stayed, only to be slaughtered with dialogue and character interactions that were nowhere near being true to anything in reality. I spent the majority of the runtime asking myself questions like: What are the ages of these ill-cast actors? Why is Steve Martin (or anyone, really) narrating this thing, when everything seems pretty clear without it? Why are the cop and his arrestee, who just met, having a heart-to-heart? Why does everyone in the family seem to enjoy watching each other make out? Just…why?! If there was something positive to say about The Coopers, I would say it. However, this is a special kind of awful; a comedy that elicits laughs, but less of the "with" kind and more of the "at" kind. In the end, I was shocked I didn't just reach into the screen, grab an icicle, and violently poke my eyes out. So do I Love the Coopers? Nope…I don't even like 'em.

I saw this with my husband and daughter in law and we all just howled. It reminds me of Nora Ephron film with all the family and personal drama going on. There is a bit of profanity and sexuality so I wouldn't take your younger kids but, for teens it's a go.

It has a great ensemble cast, each with his or her own personal drama going on. Diane Keaton and John Goodman (who has lost a ton of weight and looks great) make a very believable couple whose kids and grandkids are all slightly off kilter. Steve Martin, who narrates the film through the eyes of the family dog, is a delight. And, the love story between Angie and Sergeant is one of the highlights of the film. "I never believed in love at first sight until now."

As Leo Tolstoy said, "All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." But, you might just see an element of your own family in this film.

Yet another variation of the "extended family gets together for the holidays", as JGoodman and his wife of 40 years bicker about a trip to Africa from decades earlier (if that is the worst thing about a 40 years marriage.....) There is a kind of amusing subplot of Olivia Wilde's character meeting a military man at the airport, but it is obviously going nowhere, and after a while, she becomes so stuck up and annoying, that we want the guy to save himself and leave.

A handful of other vignettes concerning the various members of this extended family are thrown into the mix, Diane Keaton was miscast, and some puzzling use of CGI make this watchable, but not particularly memorable. Marisa Tomei gets arrested for shoplifting while on her way to Christmas dinner, and is driven around by the arresting officer for what appears to be several hours, while they cross examine each other, ad nauseum. A boring subplot, which is, again, obviously going nowhere. Amanda Seyfried has a few good scenes with Alan Arkin, but again, it predictably goes nowhere. At the end, the entire family displays the most random outburst of group dancing since Saving Christmas, while elderly Arkin is recovering from a stroke.

Some of these things could be forgiven, if there was more fun involved, but the laughs are only mild throughout this unfocused, cluttered mess. A plot, and a subplot were needed, not a half dozen subplots all going nowhere.

I realise this is really getting picky, but there should have been a comma in the title. As it reads now, it seems like it is telling us to love the Coopers.

Wife and I went to see this film, expecting a comedy and a good one due to the cast, what a disappointment !! Nothing in this film was funny, but it did go by fast as I kept waiting for the funny stuff to start. I actually found it depressing. It was so bad that we canceled our plans to go out to dinner after wards because we lost our appetites watching it. There are so many scenes and subplots that never seem to tie together.It was interesting in the airport scenes watching Joe's backpack appear then disappear only to re appear. I wonder if Diane Keaton and John Goodman regret making it ?? The best performance was Steve Martin as the dog's voice !! Don't waste your time or money.