Love the Coopers

2015 "Christmas means comfort, joy and chaos."
5.8| 1h47m| PG-13| en| More Info
Released: 13 November 2015 Released
Producted By: Imagine Entertainment
Country: United States of America
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website: http://www.cbsfilms.com/love-the-coopers/
Synopsis

When four generations of the Cooper clan come together for their annual Christmas Eve celebration, a series of unexpected visitors and unlikely events turn the night upside down, leading them all toward a surprising rediscovery of family bonds and the spirit of the holiday.

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javi-y-se-acabo I watched this movie just because it was on the TV and I got nothing better to do. And this is the typical Christmas holiday movie, but it is entertaining and funny.It tells the story of various members from the Cooper family and how they get to arrive to the Christmas Dinner. As in this kind of movies, there are a lot of characters and you might connect better with ones than others. For example, I think Amanda Seyfried here was misused, and she could have give more, as well as others like the little kids needed less time on-screen (that's also usual in this movies). The characters I liked the most are Eleanor portrayed by a beautiful Olivia Wilde and Sam portrayed by John Goodman. It's not that the acting is superb but for me they were some of the best of the movie.Of course it's not a perfect movie. Since the beginning you probably will guess how it will end. It's full of clichés of romantic-holiday movies but it's still very enjoyable. Watch it if you want to have a good time, and I think this movie is specially made for Christmas time, so better if you watch in that time.
Matt_Layden 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.
SnoopyStyle It's Christmas Eve and the Coopers are gathering for a family dinner. Sam (John Goodman) and Charlotte (Diane Keaton) are fighting after a long marriage. Their son Hank (Ed Helms) lost his job and is struggling to get his kids gifts. Emma (Marisa Tomei) has always been jealous and bitter at her sister Charlotte. She tries to steal a broach and is arrested by Officer Williams (Anthony Mackie). Sam and Charlotte pick up Aunt Fishy (June Squibb) from the retirement home. Charlotte's father Bucky (Alan Arkin) keeps eating at a diner for the companionship of waitress Ruby (Amanda Seyfried) and definitely not for the food. Eleanor (Olivia Wilde) hates to be the disappointment to her mother Charlotte and picks up military Joe (Jake Lacy) at an airport bar.This is a rather standard PG dysfunctional family Christmas. There is some good and some less-than-good from the talented cast. Wilde and Lacy are the most fun and their formulaic rom-com works well. Goodman and Keaton's fighting is a little annoying. Keaton has played this character a lot and this is not her best. Helms plays the pathetic guy. It's not the most endearing performance. I expected more back story from Arkin and Seyfried. There should be a bigger reason why he keeps going to the diner to see her. All in all, this is a functional dysfunctional family fare with a few minor problems. The one problem that keeps distracting from the story is Steve Martin's narration. Both the narrations and the flashbacks keep disrupting the flow. The narration's reveal do not help either. It's a gimmick that is too cheesy to spoil. The standard material and good cast should be good enough for a passable movie except for the disruptive narrations.
woodruffw The "Holiday Family Dramedy" is sort of a genre unto itself. One could write a similar story, with similar jokes and disappointments set at any other time of year, but somehow setting the tale at Christmas makes it more meaningful. Whether it's nostalgia or hopefulness, something about the holidays adds an extra point of connection between us and the characters.Unfortunately, "Love the Coopers" features a bunch of characters with whom it's very difficult to connect. But for a couple of exceptions, they are all totally unlikable. Forget attempting to relate to them, if you met any of these people in real life you'd go out of your way to avoid being in the same room with them ever again. Given the wonderful cast, it's a real feat of failure that the writer and director turned them into such jerks.I suppose the creators were aiming for a revamped "Love Actually". But, rather than having a troupe of mostly unconnected characters falling in and out of love, what we have here is a bunch of dysfunctional family members all dealing with screwed up relationships. The parents are planning to separate after 40 years of marriage; the newly- unemployed son is struggling to provide for his family while dealing with his shrew of an ex-wife; the free- spirited daughter has had her heart-broken and falls in love in the airport but is too hurt to genuinely connect; the widowed grandfather has developed a kind of creepy paternal bond with a waitress who announces she's leaving town; the black sheep sister is a spinster who likes to shoplift and develops her most powerful connection with the cop who arrests her.No one gets a meaningful backstory. Instead, the writer opts for an expository shortcut by including a rather intrusive narrator, who turns out to be the family dog with Steve Martin's voice. The narration tells us what the characters are feeling and why. The audience is left to take him at his word, since we don't actually get to see any of the moments that brought the characters to this point. As a result of this narrative failure, it's impossible to understand any of the characters' motivations, and it doesn't seem like any of the immensely talented cast knows what they are, either. Is an indefinitely delayed vacation really the cause of the rift between John Goodman and Diane Keaton? Is a longstanding jealousy of her older sister really the root of Marisa Tomei's kleptomania? What is it about Amanda Seyfried that makes Alan Arkin go to a restaurant that he dislikes every single morning just to see her? None of these questions (and more) are ever answered. Instead, we get scene after scene of arguments and belittling, and we wonder why any of them bother. I know you can't choose your family, but if these were my relatives I'd just as soon spend Christmas alone.The best and (somehow) worst of these interlocking stories features Olivia Wilde and relative newcomer Jake Lacy. We are told (by the dog) that Wilde's heart has been broken too often, and now she has up a wall. She is a free-spirited, agnostic Liberal who, naturally, shares an airport bar with a conservative Christian soldier who is about to ship off. They instantly hit it off, despite the fact that she does nothing but demean his faith and politics, while he offers nothing but dumb defenses of his beliefs. Lacy actually does an admirable job of creating a charming, sincere character. But Wilde is so nasty to him that it makes no sense that he would fall for her (other than the fact that she's gorgeous). Their conversation is where the writer obviously felt like he could display his chops, but what he surely thought sounded profound comes off as ridiculous. For instance, Lacy asks what Wilde believes in if not God, and she responds "I believe in Nina Simone's voice". A loud "OH COME ON!" left my mouth before I was able to control it. What is that supposed to mean? Is that what passes for profound? For reasons that are not obvious, the considerate Christian soldier pursues the obnoxious hippy chick even after running into the married man with whom she's been sleeping. It's inexplicable.The title, "Love the Coopers", refers to the salutation the matriarch writes on the family's annual Christmas card. But, because the necessary comma is left off, it becomes a command. We are instructed to love these awful people despite having no legitimate reason to do so. I genuinely cannot think of a single reason you should watch this.