By: debbie lynn elias
For me, holiday movies are what finally make the holiday season feel like the holidays; probably from all those years in my youth I spent watching Bing Crosby and Rosemary Clooney on tv in “White Christmas” while my mother decorated and put up the silver tree with red satin balls which my brothers inevitably stuffed down the toilet on Christmas Day resulting in exorbitant emergency plumbing bills. Yep. I always had the beauty of the holiday mixed with the fun familial dysfunction. Which is probably why I know the holidays are upon us with the release of NOTHING LIKE THE HOLIDAYS. Wearing a multiplicity of hats, as executive producer and star, the uber talented and ultimate nice guy Freddy Rodriguez, brings us what is, for me, the best holiday film this year. Filled with heart, family, dysfunction, food, (did I say dysfunction), and tons of fun, NOTHING LIKE THE HOLIDAYS is that touchstone Norman Rockwell piece of Americana, but with a lot more laughs and more heart than you can ever imagine.
The Rodriguezes are your typical American family. Steeped in rich Puerto Rican heritage, traditions and family values, nothing keeps the family apart at the holidays. And I do mean nothing. Converging upon the Chicago suburb of Humboldt Park (which is where Freddy Rodriguez is from and where his family still lives), son Jesse returns from Iraq not only trying to rediscover himself and deal with the guilt over the death of a comrade, but also figure our where he now fits in and what direction his life should take. He wants to rekindle a romance with his high school sweetheart Marissa but it seems she moved on while Jesse was overseas. Roxanna, a struggling actress in Hollywood, makes her way home but all the while harboring untold secrets of her life in LA. Ultimate power broker, eldest brother Mauricio, arrives with his executive Jewish wife Sarah in tow who has nothing but problems with her mother-in-law Anna, thanks to her failure to provide grandchildren compounded by her upper class non-blue collar upbringing which leads her style to be that of Neiman Marcus rather than Wal-Mart. And what of Anna. She gives new meaning to the word matriarch. One look from her and you know who rules the roost in this family. Then there’s dad, Eddy. Like s steady oak, the calm in the eye of every storm, a man with “quiet dignity”, he runs the family grocery business, a business that he looks to Jesse to take over. And of course, what would as family be without those extended friends who are often closer and more related to you than your own relatives, which brings us to Ozzy and Johnny, particularly Johnny.
As with any family, when all get together, it’s as if every kid is 12 again, the pecking order is still in play and sibling rivalry and bickering reach grand scale proportions. Doesn’t matter that the kids are grown and supposedly adults. They will still dance around in the attic in their Underoo underwear and beat up on each other every change they get. Ah, yes. Tis the season! But for the Rodriguezes things take on new meaning when Anna announces at the dinner table she wants a divorce and not too longer after that Eddy suffers a heart attack.
For me, this film is truly like being with family having had the pleasure of not only knowing several of the cast members for quite a few years but interviewing them on many occasions, as well as rapidly bonding with a talented writer like Rick Najera. Freddy Rodriguez is genuinely one of the nicest guys you will ever meet. His heart is the very essence of this film. As Jesse, with a very understated, tacitly strong performance, he is the central figure that initially brings the family together. A perfect compliment to Rodriguez’ Jesse is John Leguizamo as his brother, the frenetic, frazzled, power hungry commanding Mauricio. Leguizamo charges into every scene but let me warn you, there is a pivotal point to the story where he lets go with heartfelt emotion that speaks to the fears of the inner child in each of us that is sweetly and sadly touching.
For comic relief, one never need look any further than one of my favorite actors, Luis Guzman, who steals every scene as cousin Johnny. According to Guzman, “I got this package at home thinking it was a script and it was a menu. We’re doing a movie about Puerto Rican food. I’m in! No really. Freddy called me up and said we’re doing this movie in Chicago. Would you do a cameo for me. So I said yea, man. So they sent me a scene. I read it. I called Freddy back and said I would love to do this for you but we have to put a little more significance to this. They agreed with me and they started rewriting the scene. 4 days later I get a phone call saying we wrote this thing, there’s a cousin Johnny now and would you read it. I was like ohmigod! It was almost like a mirror image of me – a 40, 50 year old guy who loves hanging out with his 20 year old cousins.” Guzman truly is cousin Johnny. A free-spirited soul who loves his family. “I couldn’t have asked for a better part. This was a great wonderful cast they put together. The story is universal. “
Sitting down with Vanessa Ferlito is like hanging with an old girlfriend. Having known her for at least five years of so, it’s always fun to be around her. Brassy, exuberant, boisterous, strong and independent and with a heart of gold, she brings those very qualities to Roxanna, the character I most connected with from Ferlito’s first appearance on screen. But she also brings an unexpected emotional depth to Roxanna which leads to a rich textured performance. “Coupled” with Jay Hernandez’s Ozzy these two are the perfect couple. These two have a friendly sexual tension that simmers throughout the film and is, in short, nice. Hernandez, probably best known for “The Rookie” and “Ladder 49″, doesn’t disappoint and as Ozzy brings his own brand of kindness and friendship to Ozzy. Anyone who reads my columns knows my admiration for Melonia Diaz. First taking note of her in “The Beautiful Ordinary”, with every role she tackles, she exposes new layers of her talent. Earlier this year she wowed us in “Hamlet 2″ but here, as Marissa, she has a sweetness and warmth that makes Marissa so embraceable. It is a beautiful performance. What can I say about Debra Messing. The last to be cast, she brings her patented Grace Adler foibles and freneticism to the role of Sarah but then steps it up a notch in self-deprecating fashion, zinging you with a dramatic arc that tugs at the heart strings.
The real casting coups though are Alfred Molina and Elizabeth Pena as Eddy and Anna Rodriguez. The chemistry between these two is incredible. You truly believe they have been married forever. Their demeanor is tender, touching and hysterically frustrating all at the same time. And according to Hernandez, Pena “really captures the mom. The flavor of the whole neighborhood. Holds the family together.”
Opining on the camaraderie and true familial sense of the cast, Ferlito notes, “We all come from really humble beginnings. Alfred made us feel we were all equal. ” Hernandez puts it best when he says “Everybody was happy to be involved in the project. Everyone wanted to be there.” And the entire cast and crew is in agreement that this is one the best shoots they have every had – a sentiment that bodes well with the film and translates to the screen in spades.
Screenwriter Rick Najera credits “everyone” bringing something to this film. “Everyone recognizes their family in the film. No matter whatever culture or your background is.” And “the Christmas story is something that everyone relates to in some way or another. Even Debra Messing’s character who is Jewish, you still have to deal with Christmas.” This is a film about “love, redemption, family and it’s not the perfect family which we all relate to.” Co-writer Alison Swan notes that “No matter how close you are as a family, there’s a certain dread around the holidays because it brings up all the family dysfunction and all that kind of stuff that’s been lurking around and you’re stuck together for a couple of days. It’s all gonna come out. You see your life in the context of your family’s eyes because they know you better than anybody else.” It’s those elements that Najera and Swan bring to the story but emphasizing the love and heart that ultimately prevail and shine through during the holidays. One beautiful device and running metaphor that tracks the story and the family is a large rotting overgrown oak tree in the front yard. According to Najera, “this is truly a very collaborative film where in the end you went, ‘It’s the best work of all of us.’ The film became better than all of us together. “ Guzman agrees with him. “We had a great story and everybody had an awesome arc to their characters. A very very good formula.”
Director Alfredo de Villa came into the project over a year ago. One read of the script and he knew he had to direct it. “I was very moved by the script but I was also laughing a lot.” A challenging shoot, the film was shot in the Humboldt Park area during one of the coldest winters on record. For Debra Messing, she was prompted to order a coat that would withstand the cold of Antarctica – unfortunately it didn’t arrive until 2 days before filming ended – although as she say, “for 2 days I was warm as could be.” According to deVilla, “Those exteriors outside the house were probably the toughest week because we have all those scenes with a lot of extras. It was so cold that the bathrooms in the trailers, the plumbing froze.” An interesting twist for the director was the food. An extremely important part of the movie, “we rehearsed the food for like a week before we shot.” According to Guzman, a foodaholic, “it was the real deal. We had the chef from the neighborhood restaurant cook up all the food.” And let me tell you, every cast member assures me there was a lot of quality control going on with the food.
Key to the Americana and familial essence of the film was de Villa’s attention to detail, right down to knick knacks in the Rodriguez house and clothing in the drawers and closets. Color was also very important to de Villa. “I had a very specific design in terms of the colors. I wanted to avoid certain colors. It had to be a holiday film so green and red had to be a part of it but I wanted to sort of arc with that color. I wanted to keep it a beige and then slowly bring in other colors. I wanted to control the color in arc and resolution.” So determined was he to incorporate the elements in an exacting manner, de Villa worked with the production designer Daniel Clancy and a researcher. Bringing de Villa’s vision home is cinematographer Scott Kevan who according to deVilla “approached this from a fresh point of view.”
The power of family – love, laughter, dysfunction and fun. There really is NOTHING LIKE THE HOLIDAYS.
Eddy – Alfred Molina Anna – Elizabeth Pena Jesse – Freddy Rodriguez Mauricio – John Leguizamo Sarah – Debra Messing Johnny – Luis Guzman Roxanna – Vanessa Ferlito Ozzy – Jay Hernandez Marissa – Melonie Diaz
Directed by Alfredo de Villa. Written by Rick Najera and Alison Swan.
