An exceptional cast and a few on-target laugh lines are the positives for “Love the Coopers,” an otherwise pedestrian holiday comedy about a dysfunctional family. [...] first there’s Christmas dinner, with their offspring Hank (Ed Helms), a single dad who is out of work; Eleanor (Olivia Wilde), a sharp-tongued and lonely writer; Emma (Marisa Tomei), a troubled soul who gets arrested for shoplifting early in the movie; and assorted significant others, former spouses and children. Emma tries to analyze the psyche of the police office who arrests her for stealing from a department store. Eleanor picks up a soldier (Jake Lacy) stranded at the airport, aiming to pass him off as a boyfriend so her familly won’t bug her about her relationship status — a P.C. queen, she teasingly mocks what she assumes are his right-wing views. [...] the film is stitched together from familiar scraps of holiday material, and a lot of the dialogue must have looked better on paper than it sounds in the movie. [...] it’s always a pleasure to watch Arkin in action, and the generosity of his character is a hint at what I’m guessing is the film’s point.
Reported by SFGate 1 day ago.
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