Back to trending
Nothing Like the Holidays

Nothing Like the Holidays

Comedy · Drama · Romance · 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.

Movie details

Nothing Like the Holidays

“They’re just a typical American family. Minus the typical.”

2008 Comedy · Drama · Romance 1h 38m

Critical arithmetic

The consensus, allegedly.

IMDb

6.1 / 10

4.9K votes

Rotten Tomatoes

53 %

Tomatometer

Metacritic

50 / 100

Metascore

TMDB

6.3 / 10

Community rating

External scores via OMDb · CC BY-NC 4.0. Values normalized for display; availability varies by title.

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.

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 Nothing Like the Holidays?

The 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.

Delirious

Delirious

Comedy · 2007

Les, a small-time celebrity photographer desperate to make it big, befriends Toby, a homeless young man with no direction except a vague desire to become an actor. When by chance, Toby becomes romantically involved with K'Harma Leeds, the hottest pop star of the moment, Les grows jealous and plots revenge.

Our Little Secret

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.

The Good House

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.

Cosi

Cosi

Comedy · 1996

Lewis, a young amateur theater director, is offered a job with a governmental program for the rehabilitation of mentally ill patients in a Sydney institution. His project is overrun by one of the patients, who wants to stage the opera Cosi Fan Tutte by Mozart, despite the fact that none of the patients can sing or speak Italian. A comedy of errors ensues, but one which unifies the patients and their director in unexpected ways.

Love & Sex

Love & Sex

Comedy · 2000

When her rather explicit copy is rejected, magazine journalist Kate is asked by her editor to come up with an article on loving relationships instead, and to do so by the end of the day. This gets Kate thinking back over her own various experiences, and to wondering if she is in much of a position to write on the subject.

Mumford

Mumford

Comedy · 1999

When a would-be psychologist, curiously named Dr. Mumford, comes to the idyllic town of the same name and offers his talent for listening and a disarming frankness, the town's quirkiest citizens scramble for a seat on his couch. As he lightens hearts darkened by old secrets no one realizes he's hiding a whopper of his own, or that he's fallen head over heels for one of his patients!

Once Around

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.

This Christmas

This Christmas

Comedy · 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.

Chéri

Chéri

Drama · 2009

The son of a courtesan retreats into a fantasy world after being forced to end his relationship with the older woman who educated him in the ways of love.

Newness

Newness

Romance · 2017

In contemporary Los Angeles, two millennials navigating a social media–driven hookup culture begin a relationship that pushes both emotional and physical boundaries.

Where it lives

Watch in your region.

Cinema release signals and current streaming, rental, and purchase options for your region.

Streaming availability data supplied by JustWatch.

Names above the title

The people responsible.

Directed by

Alfredo De Villa

Written by

Alison Swan · Rick Najera

Alfred Molina

Alfred Molina

Edy Rodriguez

Elizabeth Peña

Elizabeth Peña

Anna Rodriguez

Freddy Rodríguez

Freddy Rodríguez

Jesse Rodriguez

Luis Guzmán

Luis Guzmán

Johnny

Jay Hernandez

Jay Hernandez

Ozzy

John Leguizamo

John Leguizamo

Mauricio Rodriguez

Debra Messing

Debra Messing

Sarah Rodriguez

Court is in session

Put Nothing Like the Holidays on trial.

Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.

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.

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.