Movies about families gathering for holiday celebrations tend toward nostalgic recollections or satirical pokes at low-hanging fruit. Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point takes a different approach, although it’s not clear what that might be. Employing a teeming ensemble of actors, the movie chronicles an evening in the life of a large Italian-American family: kids, teenagers, adults, and what’s left of an older generation. Absent a central character, director Tyler Taormina turns his Long Island-based movie into a heap of asides that feel as if they may have been drawn from personal experience. Homage is paid to family tradition, but the teenagers eventually slip away, seeking the familiarity of a world their parents don’t understand. A packed soundtrack (from Sinatra to The Ronettes) seems keyed to evoking smiles of recognition. Set in the early years of the 21st century, the movie also includes mother-daughter tensions and disagreements about whether it’s time to move mom into a nursing home. Perhaps to solidify its indie cred, the movie casts Michael Cera and Gregg Turkington as two cops who sound dissonant comic notes. If you attend this densely populated party, look for performances by Maria Dizzia, Tony Savino, and Francesca Scorsese. To summarize: The movie resembles a Christmas meal at which everyone overindulges. Put another way, all of this gets to be too much. Enjoyable in bits and pieces, Christmas Even in Miller’s Point did for me exactly what a real evening like this might have accomplished. Halfway through, I was ready to go home.
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