There's a lot going on here.
As I finish up watching it, they blow through a stop sign that doesn't exist. They're on a main road, the cross road has the stop and when they show the reverse angle, there's no sign visible.
Anyway, this movie is a mess. The location change from, what is apparently rural Georgia to LA makes absolutely no sense. For this family to go from "dirt poor" to very, very wealthy in this short amount of time is ridiculous - the kids that are born in the first scene are, what, 10 years old when they're rich. I don't even know if the father was actually in law school when the first two kids are born. Later on, they talk about an old couch that they got when he was a student and had to carry up flights of stairs, but they lived in a home when they were poor, not a 4th floor walk up.
All that is to say, that the ultimate message is a good one. They realize that money isn't the key to happiness (something that can be argued), but it's not that they were rich, it was that they lost touch with what it's all about - family, relationships, caring for one another. They learn this lesson from an improbable firing (a partner in a law firm doesn't get canned without cause without a very large golden parachute) and a failing store.
It has its moments - more bad than good, but there are some cute scenes and it's, in the end, a somewhat touching Christmas story.
As I finish up watching it, they blow through a stop sign that doesn't exist. They're on a main road, the cross road has the stop and when they show the reverse angle, there's no sign visible.
Anyway, this movie is a mess. The location change from, what is apparently rural Georgia to LA makes absolutely no sense. For this family to go from "dirt poor" to very, very wealthy in this short amount of time is ridiculous - the kids that are born in the first scene are, what, 10 years old when they're rich. I don't even know if the father was actually in law school when the first two kids are born. Later on, they talk about an old couch that they got when he was a student and had to carry up flights of stairs, but they lived in a home when they were poor, not a 4th floor walk up.
All that is to say, that the ultimate message is a good one. They realize that money isn't the key to happiness (something that can be argued), but it's not that they were rich, it was that they lost touch with what it's all about - family, relationships, caring for one another. They learn this lesson from an improbable firing (a partner in a law firm doesn't get canned without cause without a very large golden parachute) and a failing store.
It has its moments - more bad than good, but there are some cute scenes and it's, in the end, a somewhat touching Christmas story.