Seth Rogen and Joseph Gordon-Levitt reunite with 50/50 director Jonathan Levine for this raucous tale of a substance-fuelled Christmas Eve misadventure, between three friends struggling to maintain old traditions in the face of adult responsibilities.
Rogen plays Isaac, a lawyer concealing his panic regarding the imminent arrival of his first child. Chris (Anthony Mackie) is a steroid- injecting football player losing himself to fame and ego, while Ethan (Gordon-Levitt) is an orphan whose fear of commitment has one exception – Christmas Eve rabble-rousing with the friends who are his surrogate family.
Levine embraces a madcap series of increasingly ludicrous hijinks in the style of Superbad or A Very Harold and Kumar Christmas. Rogen bears the brunt of it, entering into a hyper state of mushroom-induced paranoid confusion, resulting in a filmed tirade against his unborn child and a puking monologue in midnight mass, denying that his Jewish ancestors killed Jesus. Rogen, always likable, carries the often hilarious madness well. In comparison, the downbeat Ethan is merely a buzzkill, and jock Chris never evolves past his desperate need for validation.
For a writer usually attuned to sensitivity and subtlety, Levine misjudges the balance of his piece, with the characterisation and theme of maturing friendships proving overstated yet underdeveloped, detracting from the frequent laughs but adding little depth. Meanwhile, the constant pop songs and cameos feel gimmicky.
However, there is a notable turn from Michael Shannon, an actor revered for his quiet intensity. He appears in a gloriously odd role, playing the disarmingly observant drug-dealer Mr. Green, who becomes the men’s ghost of Christmas past, present and future. In the midst of an otherwise by-the-book, boys-will-be-boys tale, it’s one hell of Christmas cracker surprise.