The defence The Sentimental Softie
“Sincerity is not manipulation.”
The film risks embarrassment to make emotion communal, and that openness is harder than fashionable detachment.
Back to trending 
This Christmas
Comedy · Drama · Romance · 2007
This year Christmas with the Whitfields promises to be one they will never forget. All the siblings have come home for the first time in years and they've brought plenty of baggage with them. As the Christmas tree is trimmed and the lights are hung, secrets are revealed and family bonds are tested. As their lives converge, they join together and help each other discover the true meaning of family.
Movie details
This Christmas
“You can't exchange family.”
2007 Comedy · Drama · Romance 1h 57m
Critical arithmetic
The consensus, allegedly.
Scores change. Arguments endure.
IMDb
6.4 / 10
10.8K votes
Rotten Tomatoes
56 %
Tomatometer
Metacritic
63 / 100
Metascore
TMDB
6.6 / 10
Community rating
External scores via OMDb · CC BY-NC 4.0. Values normalized for display; availability varies by title.
This year Christmas with the Whitfields promises to be one they will never forget. All the siblings have come home for the first time in years and they've brought plenty of baggage with them. As the Christmas tree is trimmed and the lights are hung, secrets are revealed and family bonds are tested. As their lives converge, they join together and help each other discover the true meaning of family.
CriticWise case file
What this film says about your taste.
Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.
The archetype split
Who fights over This Christmas?
For the defence
The Sentimental Softie
“You came to feel something, and you will.”
Read their case For the prosecution
The Cool Ironist
“Feeling things is a little embarrassing.”
Read their objectionThe split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.
Taste neighbourhood
Nearby on the taste map.
TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.
Nothing Like the Holidays
Comedy · 2008
It’s Christmastime and the far-flung members of the Rodriguez family are converging at their parents’ home in Chicago to celebrate the season and rejoice in their youngest brother’s safe return from combat overseas.
Inventing the Abbotts
Drama · 1997
In the 1950s, brothers Jacey and Doug Holt, who come from the poorer side of their sleepy Midwestern town, vie for the affections of the wealthy, lovely Abbott sisters. Lady-killer Jacey alternates between Eleanor and Alice, wanting simply to break the hearts of rich young women. But sensitive Doug has a real romance with Pamela, which Jacey and the Abbott patriarch, Lloyd, both frown upon.
Zoey's Extraordinary Christmas
Comedy · 2021
On her first holiday without her father, Zoey attempts to create a magical Christmas for her family just like the ones Mitch used to do.
The Best You Can
Comedy · 2025
Cynthia Rand is a buttoned-up New Yorker married to a brilliant professor 25 years her senior. She begins feeling the effects of her husband’s advancing age on their relationship, just as her world is turned upside down by the arrival of sharp but chronically underachieving security guard Stan Olszewski in this smart rom-com that reunites Bacon and Sedgwick on screen for the first time in 20 years.
Our Little Secret
Romance · 2024
After discovering their significant others are siblings, two resentful exes must spend Christmas under one roof — while hiding their romantic history.
A Madea Christmas
Comedy · 2013
Madea dispenses her unique form of holiday spirit on rural town when she's coaxed into helping a friend pay her daughter a surprise visit in the country for Christmas.
Eulogy
Comedy · 2004
A black comedy that follows three generations of a family, who come together for the funeral of the patriarch - unveiling a litany of family secrets and covert relationships.
The Good House
Romance · 2021
When wry New England realtor Hildy Good rekindles a romance with her old high-school flame, Frank Getchell, it ignites long-buried emotions and family secrets that propel Hildy toward a reckoning with the one person she's been avoiding for decades: herself. Based on the best-selling novel by Ann Leary.
Once Around
Comedy · 1991
A struggling woman finds unexpected love with a charismatic older salesman at a real estate seminar. Their passionate relationship clashes with the values of her family, particularly her father.
About Last Night...
Comedy · 1986
A man and woman meet and try to have a romantic affair, despite their personal problems and the interference of their disapproving friends.
Where it lives
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Names above the title
The people responsible.
Cast & crew
Directed by
Preston A. Whitmore II
Written by
Preston A. Whitmore II
Delroy Lindo
Joe Black
Idris Elba
Quentin "Junior" Whitfield
Loretta Devine
Shirley Ann "Ma'Dere" Whitfield
Chris Brown
Michael "Baby" Whitfield
Keith D. Robinson
Devean Brooks
Laz Alonso
Malcolm Moore
Columbus Short
Claude Whitfield
Court is in session
Put This Christmas on trial.
Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.
The prosecution The Cool Ironist
“The strings are showing.”
Every cue tells you exactly what to feel and when, leaving sentiment to do the work character should have done.