Surviving Christmas

Ben Affleck's latest flop, which our distributors prudently took their hands off after the overwhelming overseas reviews and zero audience response, is an unbelievable abomination. The story of a millionaire (Affleck) who feels lonely during the Christmas holidays and therefore hires a family of strangers to keep him company is a bunch of nonsense, trying in vain to be humorous, or at least to get a fleeting smile. I don't have anything against Affleck, but the title 'Surviving Affleck' would be more appropriate, because what he does here would put down even a hardened masochist. Apparently under the illusion that he has comedic talent, he overacts in an utterly disgusting way, and watching his mime gymnastics is perhaps even worse than medieval torture (must be seen in the original version). I almost felt sorry for him. I read an interview with Affleck somewhere where he said: "You know when I know something is wrong with my acting career? When I catch myself talking the producers into making a sequel to Daredevil.” Come on Ben, it's about time you started begging for Gigli and this 'swan song'. (19/01/2005)