What happens when you mix traditional conservative and liberal values? Fireworks. Now their may be a political message at the core of this not-quite family friendly flick (that liberal values are correct and conservative values are evil), but that doesn’t mean you have to boycott it if you lean to the red right down south. You’ve got to look past the politics and look at the real message about the real people (no this isn’t based on someone’s life as far as I know) which basically says: love heals all wounds…and there’s no holiday more lovingly charged than Christmas. With a star-studded cast (Diane Keaton, Craig T. Nelson, Sarah Jessica Parker, Rachel McAdams, Luke Wilson and Dermot Mulroney) that shares the screen well, the message really comes through. Parker is introduced to the family as Mulroney’s girlfriend. The problem is that she has crafted this business-like and professional persona that she never takes off to show who she really is. Throughout the disastrous events of the movie, she sheds this begirding persona and awakes to a beautiful world filled with beautiful people who love her. That’s what’s so great about the movie: underneath, it’s all about family values, no matter how your family behaves. And that’s always a holiday treat.