The summer vacation is an annual ritual. It’s that week when families can get away and enjoy each other’s company while relaxing and forgetting the stresses of life. Yet as the Griswold family has proved time and time again, their vacations are far from perfect. Now, all grown up and with a family of his own, Rusty Griswold wants to give his wife, Debbie, and their kids the experience of a cross-country road trip to Walley World. What could go wrong on this Vacation?
Rusty has fond memories of the many family vacations he took as a child, and with his own family’s summer routine in a rut, he decides the best way to shake things up is with a road trip — a 2,000-mile road trip. But much like the trip Rusty took with his parents and sister years ago, this trip is illfated from the moment the Griswolds step into their Tartan Prancer (it’s the Honda of Albania).
Traveling cross-country from the Chicago suburbs to Southern California will have the Griswolds stopping at various interesting locales. A visit to a hot spring in Arkansas, Debbie’s old sorority in Tennessee, the Four Corners area and the great majesty of the Grand Canyon are just a few of the stops along the way. Through it all, the Griswolds are a family that attacks the challenges they face head-on, but every family can only take so much.
The original Vacation, from 1983, holds a special place in my heart. The Chevy Chase vehicle spawned sequels both good and bad, and became a cornerstone film in my love of the comedy genre. I first fell in love with it on video, and have since owned multiple copies and worn them to shreds. Given my love of Harold Ramis’ original excursion across the country, I worried about a remake, reimagining or sequel of such a special film. Thankfully, this is a solid, though flawed, addition to the Vacation family.
Ed Helms takes on the role of Rusty. Helms delivers on a character that I believe could be Clark Griswold’s grown son. In his heart, Rusty is a good man, and he wants nothing but the best for his family — but he also wants to fit in. Helms is one of few comedic actors today who is able to pull off such a role.
Christina Applegate, as Debbie, has a great comedic screen presence. Her ability to slip back and forth between her secret past as a wild college girl and the wife who wants to make her husband happy, but longs for more, is eminently believable. Applegate has always delivered when given a part to work with, and this is no exception.
The Griswold children, James (Skyler Gisondo) and Kevin (Steele Stebbins), have moments of screen-stealing time. And small roles bring us great performances by Chris Hemsworth (and his six pack), Leslie Mann, Charlie Day, Norman Reedus, Regina Hall and, of course, the parents themselves,
Chevy Chase and Beverly D’Angelo. So many funny people all in one space — it is like a cavalcade of stars paraded in front of us.
So what didn’t work? While the original film was rated R, it was made in a kinder, gentler time, and quite frankly, would probably be rated PG-13 by today’s standards. Here we leave all caution behind and load up on the foul language, so there is no way you could feel the same. That attempt to sometimes shock felt like a cheap shortcut to laughs.
I also believe a lot of footage may have ended up on the cutting room floor. The uneven visit to Rusty’s sister Audrey and her husband Stone felt thrown together, and some late revelations created a sense of unfinished business. A piece or two of the journey felt forced in order to work in gags, but the story of the lovable Griswolds didn’t need to be.
Despite having some issues with the film, the bottom line is that I laughed throughout. The trailers, if you’ve seen them all, give away a lot of the laughs, which is unfortunate.
I remember family vacations; as my brothers would attest, they can be long and arduous journeys to a seemingly unreachable end. But this Vacation adds to the lore of a franchise that I hold fondly in my heart, and long after the credits finished rolling, I still feel I enjoyed this Vacation. It is a fun family journey back on the road.
Vacation
Rated: R
Stars: Ed Helms, Christina Applegate
Directors: John Francis Daley,
Jonathan M. Goldstein
Grade: B