{"id":879,"date":"2007-11-27T14:00:26","date_gmt":"2007-11-27T20:00:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.flovalleynews.com\/movie-review-this-christmas\/"},"modified":"2007-11-27T14:00:26","modified_gmt":"2007-11-27T20:00:26","slug":"movie-review-this-christmas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/flovalleynews.com\/?p=879","title":{"rendered":"Movie review: &#8220;This Christmas&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>BY MAGGIE SCOTT<\/p>\n<p>Mother love, family ties and holiday cheer are all put to the test by the strains, strifes, strivings and secrets of the children of Ma\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Dere Whitfield (Loretta Devine) in the dramedy &#8220;This Christmas.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>  Converging on their former L.A. home are an assortment of young adults dealing with plenty of their own relationship and career issues, but anxious to butt into their mother\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s affairs.  <\/p>\n<p>Lisa (Regina King) is being pressured by her philandering husband Malcolm (Laz Alonso) to get Ma\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Dere to sell the family dry cleaning business and the &#8220;too big&#8221; house, as well.  Elder son Quentin (Idris Elba) is a footloose musician with unfriendly feelings for Ma\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Dere\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s boyfriend Joe (Delroy Lindo) and a couple of loan shark muscle men on his tail.  <\/p>\n<p>Kelli (Sharon Leal) is a free-wheeling single girl at odds with Lisa over the fact that Kelli took off for college rather than help out with the business.  Michael &#8220;Baby&#8221; Whitfield wants a career in singing; but he hasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t left the nest yet, and Ma\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Dere doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want the last child looking out for her to get hurt.  <\/p>\n<p>Mel (Lauren London) has brought home a young college student friend (Keith Robinson) her sibs tease and Claude is hiding more than the fact that he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s AWOL from the Marines. There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a lovely girl waiting in a hotel room for him to break the news to his family that she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s pregnant, white and his wife.   <\/p>\n<p>At first, there are minor re-aquaintance tiffs.  But, as the kids get down to brass tacks about their lives and admit they aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t being true to themselves or each other, the gloves come off for some hilarious and poignant tussles.<\/p>\n<p>  Particularly amusing are the spitfire face-offs of Lisa and Kelli over a hunk (Mekhi Phifer) making a move on Kelli and over Lisa\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s denials about Malcolm.  As this reunion genre typically goes, everyone comes around to acknowledge that love transcends and forgives all.  <\/p>\n<p>Even if the ending is a foregone conclusion, the journey is a raucous roadmap most people will recognize as having found their steps on at some point in their own family story. These people from the mind of director\/writer Preston A. Whitmore II deserve another visit. <\/p>\n<p>Sony Pictures Entertainment release, rated PG-13 comic sexual content and some violence.<br \/>\n<a style=\"text-decoration:none\" href=\"\/price-of-flovent-one-a-day\">.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>BY MAGGIE SCOTT Mother love, family ties and holiday cheer are all put to the test by the strains, strifes, strivings and secrets of the children of Ma\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Dere Whitfield (Loretta Devine) in the dramedy &#8220;This Christmas.&#8221; Converging on their former L.A. home are an assortment of young adults dealing with plenty of their own relationship [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"ocean_post_layout":"","ocean_both_sidebars_style":"","ocean_both_sidebars_content_width":0,"ocean_both_sidebars_sidebars_width":0,"ocean_sidebar":"","ocean_second_sidebar":"","ocean_disable_margins":"enable","ocean_add_body_class":"","ocean_shortcode_before_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_after_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_before_header":"","ocean_shortcode_after_header":"","ocean_has_shortcode":"","ocean_shortcode_after_title":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_bottom":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_bottom":"","ocean_display_top_bar":"default","ocean_display_header":"default","ocean_header_style":"","ocean_center_header_left_menu":"","ocean_custom_header_template":"","ocean_custom_logo":0,"ocean_custom_retina_logo":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_height":0,"ocean_header_custom_menu":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_family":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_subset":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_size":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_unit":"px","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_line_height":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_unit":"","ocean_menu_typo_spacing":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_unit":"","ocean_menu_link_color":"","ocean_menu_link_color_hover":"","ocean_menu_link_color_active":"","ocean_menu_link_background":"","ocean_menu_link_hover_background":"","ocean_menu_link_active_background":"","ocean_menu_social_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_links_color":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_color":"","ocean_disable_title":"default","ocean_disable_heading":"default","ocean_post_title":"","ocean_post_subheading":"","ocean_post_title_style":"","ocean_post_title_background_color":"","ocean_post_title_background":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_image_position":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_attachment":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_repeat":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_size":"","ocean_post_title_height":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay":0.5,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay_color":"","ocean_disable_breadcrumbs":"default","ocean_breadcrumbs_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_separator_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_hover_color":"","ocean_display_footer_widgets":"default","ocean_display_footer_bottom":"default","ocean_custom_footer_template":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"ocean_post_oembed":"","ocean_post_self_hosted_media":"","ocean_post_video_embed":"","ocean_link_format":"","ocean_link_format_target":"self","ocean_quote_format":"","ocean_quote_format_link":"post","ocean_gallery_link_images":"on","ocean_gallery_id":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-879","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-movie-reviews","entry"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Movie review: &quot;This Christmas&quot; - flovalleynews.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/flovalleynews.com\/?p=879\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Movie review: &quot;This Christmas&quot; - flovalleynews.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"BY MAGGIE SCOTT Mother love, family ties and holiday cheer are all put to the test by the strains, strifes, strivings and secrets of the children of Ma\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Dere Whitfield (Loretta Devine) in the dramedy &#8220;This Christmas.&#8221; Converging on their former L.A. home are an assortment of young adults dealing with plenty of their own relationship [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/flovalleynews.com\/?p=879\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"flovalleynews.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2007-11-27T20:00:26+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"independentnws\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"independentnws\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/flovalleynews.com\\\/?p=879#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/flovalleynews.com\\\/?p=879\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"independentnws\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/flovalleynews.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/7bede6d4517a6be3345b47415b09cebd\"},\"headline\":\"Movie review: &#8220;This Christmas&#8221;\",\"datePublished\":\"2007-11-27T20:00:26+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/flovalleynews.com\\\/?p=879\"},\"wordCount\":397,\"commentCount\":0,\"articleSection\":[\"Movie Reviews\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/flovalleynews.com\\\/?p=879#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/flovalleynews.com\\\/?p=879\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/flovalleynews.com\\\/?p=879\",\"name\":\"Movie review: \\\"This Christmas\\\" - flovalleynews.com\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/flovalleynews.com\\\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2007-11-27T20:00:26+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/flovalleynews.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/7bede6d4517a6be3345b47415b09cebd\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/flovalleynews.com\\\/?p=879#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/flovalleynews.com\\\/?p=879\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/flovalleynews.com\\\/?p=879#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/flovalleynews.com\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Movie review: &#8220;This Christmas&#8221;\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/flovalleynews.com\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/flovalleynews.com\\\/\",\"name\":\"flovalleynews.com\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/flovalleynews.com\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/flovalleynews.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/7bede6d4517a6be3345b47415b09cebd\",\"name\":\"independentnws\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/f76505b4d7bc95b432faea9b79d00a6abc40ba8a96aef3a5fbd567ecb14b19a0?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/f76505b4d7bc95b432faea9b79d00a6abc40ba8a96aef3a5fbd567ecb14b19a0?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/f76505b4d7bc95b432faea9b79d00a6abc40ba8a96aef3a5fbd567ecb14b19a0?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"independentnws\"},\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/flovalleynews.com\\\/?author=1\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Movie review: \"This Christmas\" - flovalleynews.com","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/flovalleynews.com\/?p=879","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Movie review: \"This Christmas\" - flovalleynews.com","og_description":"BY MAGGIE SCOTT Mother love, family ties and holiday cheer are all put to the test by the strains, strifes, strivings and secrets of the children of Ma\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Dere Whitfield (Loretta Devine) in the dramedy &#8220;This Christmas.&#8221; Converging on their former L.A. home are an assortment of young adults dealing with plenty of their own relationship [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/flovalleynews.com\/?p=879","og_site_name":"flovalleynews.com","article_published_time":"2007-11-27T20:00:26+00:00","author":"independentnws","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"independentnws","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/flovalleynews.com\/?p=879#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/flovalleynews.com\/?p=879"},"author":{"name":"independentnws","@id":"https:\/\/flovalleynews.com\/#\/schema\/person\/7bede6d4517a6be3345b47415b09cebd"},"headline":"Movie review: &#8220;This Christmas&#8221;","datePublished":"2007-11-27T20:00:26+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/flovalleynews.com\/?p=879"},"wordCount":397,"commentCount":0,"articleSection":["Movie Reviews"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/flovalleynews.com\/?p=879#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/flovalleynews.com\/?p=879","url":"https:\/\/flovalleynews.com\/?p=879","name":"Movie review: \"This Christmas\" - flovalleynews.com","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/flovalleynews.com\/#website"},"datePublished":"2007-11-27T20:00:26+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/flovalleynews.com\/#\/schema\/person\/7bede6d4517a6be3345b47415b09cebd"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/flovalleynews.com\/?p=879#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/flovalleynews.com\/?p=879"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/flovalleynews.com\/?p=879#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/flovalleynews.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Movie review: &#8220;This Christmas&#8221;"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/flovalleynews.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/flovalleynews.com\/","name":"flovalleynews.com","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/flovalleynews.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/flovalleynews.com\/#\/schema\/person\/7bede6d4517a6be3345b47415b09cebd","name":"independentnws","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f76505b4d7bc95b432faea9b79d00a6abc40ba8a96aef3a5fbd567ecb14b19a0?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f76505b4d7bc95b432faea9b79d00a6abc40ba8a96aef3a5fbd567ecb14b19a0?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f76505b4d7bc95b432faea9b79d00a6abc40ba8a96aef3a5fbd567ecb14b19a0?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"independentnws"},"url":"https:\/\/flovalleynews.com\/?author=1"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/flovalleynews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/879","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/flovalleynews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/flovalleynews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flovalleynews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flovalleynews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=879"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/flovalleynews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/879\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/flovalleynews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=879"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flovalleynews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=879"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flovalleynews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=879"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}