Rich Wright SPOILERS So, this film was partly financed by 'American Express'? How does THAT work out? Anyway, the main gist here is a VERY large family of Irish American siblings getting together for the festive period. Most have very complicated personal lives, as well as big relationship problems. Their parents have been separated for years... After their father ran off decades ago because he suddenly became a millionaire.Now, he has terminal pancreatic cancer... And wants one last special day with his loved ones. His former wife is totally against it... And who can blame her? Their grown-up children have varying opinions... Some desperately want to see him again regardless of past sins... Others have no interest in renewing their acquaintance of such a thoughtless man, whatever the circumstances.The question of will-they or won't-they spend the festive period as one takes place amongst a backdrop of chaos and angst. Over the course of 100 minutes, ties will be mended, started or shattered forever. There is a slight soap-operaish air seeing all these travails unfold, and the film successfully involves us in the drama. With a couple of exceptions, the performances are all on point, capturing the mood of a loving, but feuding family during a very stressful time of the year.Of course, it all ends with a slow motion pan over a necessarily large table... With everyone together, smiling and laughing while nodding at each other, subtly forgiving of past sins. You can always rely on the Yanks to bring out the schmaltz eventually... 6/10

rongroup The many talent's of Edward Burns as screenwriter, director and actor were abundantly evident in this film. Everything from the cast of characters, choice of location, simple but powerful lighting and suburb directing makes this a memorable "family relationship" Christmas classic.The script was written, and intended, as adult entertainment due to the use of language not appropriate for children. But, by doing that Mr. Burns was able to avoid the classic failure of your typical family Christmas film that often ends up as either "sugar mush" or absurd comedy. You know the ones I referring to, they're often found on the Hallmark Chanel at Christmas time.I take my hat off to Edward Burns this film "The Fitzgerald family Christmas" is among my favorite Holiday movies of all times along with the "Christmas Story" and "It's a wonderful Life" All three rate 10 out of 10.

Ayal Oren A big family is a catalog of problems, a big family at the holidays is a catalog of problems reaching its boiling point. If you've lived in a big family you know it, if you've seen one or two films about big families, you probably know it too. Here lies the failure of this nice little film. Don't get me wrong, it's fairly well acted, the director choosing a low key approach that suits the genre well, so it's not a catastrophe, in fact it might be a good pastime if you can relate. Thing is the plot is not only loaded with cliché, it's devoid of any refreshing surprise or plot twist. And it tends to solve most of the problems it's looking into in a superficial almost casual manner. An abusive husband, falling for a creepy old man, falling for a girl who's too young for you, everything solved nice and easy, like it was no more than a ploy to cover a few more minutes on screen. It's not a good feeling to end with after a film with which we're suppose to relate.

Neddy Merrill Edward Burns' Christmas movie deals with the sensitive issue of parental abandonment, and alcoholism, oh, and finding love in middle age, and inter-religion marriage, and finding love in advanced age, and unemployment, and unwanted pregnancies, oh, and spousal abuse, and gold- digging and learning to settle and failing businesses and problematic children, and reconciliation and a few other "B" plots. In fact, Burns' script contains so many plots that the alcoholic (or at least the one that has sought treatment for it) Fitzgerald brother returns from rehab, borrows some money from Burns' character and is quickly forgotten about. Burns' attempt to juggle enough family-themed plots to fuel a year's worth of Lifetime movies for women means that those that don't be resolved essentially get forgotten. On the positive size, the open questions give him a platform to produce sequels until we get "Fitzgerald Family Christmas XXII: We Finally Return to Burns' Character's Romance With the Nurse". In short, the attempt to cram so many sub-plots and characters into a hour and forty minute running time means none receive anywhere near the attention needed to build any suspense or character development - see "Home for the Holidays" for a much better realized version of the same idea.