The Perfect Holiday

NEW YORK (CNS) -- The course of second love runs far from smoothly in "The Perfect Holiday" (Yari), an amiable romantic comedy.

Nancy (Gabrielle Union), a divorced mother of three, is anxious to take another try at romance. To jump-start the process, her young daughter Emily (Khail Bryant) tells a shopping mall Santa (Morris Chestnut) that all she wants for Christmas is for a man to give her mother a compliment, a wish that Santa -- aka Benjamin -- once out of uniform, promptly contrives to fulfill.

Embarrassed by his temporary job, however, he conceals both it and his ambition to become a songwriter, pretending that he sells office supplies.

When Nancy's ex-husband, an egotistical, womanizing rap star named J-Jizzy (Charles Q. Murphy), decides to use one of Benjamin's songs on his forthcoming Christmas album, the part-time Santa is delighted by the opportunity, but finds he must now conceal from each ex-spouse the fact that he knows the other.

His relationship with Nancy is further complicated by the opposition of her 10-year-old son, John-John (Malik Hammond), who, unaware, tries to enlist Santa's help in getting rid of Benjamin.

As J-Jizzy tries to exploit his children for promotional purposes, and Benjamin's romantic ardor rises and falls in response to the mixed signals he's receiving from Emily and John-John, Nancy finds herself looking forward to a very complicated holiday season. Presiding over and narrating events, however, is "Mrs. Christmas" (Queen Latifah, also the film's producer), who tries to help things along despite the opposition of her Scrooge-like nemesis, Bah Humbug (Terrence Howard).

Most of the humorous complications of director Lance Rivera's farce work well enough. Katt Williams makes an amusing supporting appearance as J-Jizzy's disapproving assistant, Delicious.

But other elements of the movie, including the rivalry between Latifah and Howard, are less successful, so that the end product falls well short of its titular adjective.

The film contains implied premarital sex, divorce, some crass expressions and one mild profanity. The USCCB Office for Film & Broadcasting classification is A-II -- adults and adolescents. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is PG -- parental guidance suggested. Some material may not be suitable for children.

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Copyright (c) 2007 Catholic News Service/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops