| The Perfect Holiday | |
| Director: | Lance Rivera |
| Producer: | Joseph P. Genier Leifur B. Dagfinnsson Marvin Peart Mike Elliott Queen Latifah Shakim Compere |
| Starring: | Morris Chestnut Gabrielle Union Charlie Murphy Katt Williams Faizon Love Terrence Howard Queen Latifah |
| Music: | Christopher Lennertz |
| Cinematography: | Teodoro Maniaci |
| Editing: | Paul Trejo |
| Studio: | Capital Arts Entertainment True North Productions Flavor Unit Entertainment |
| Distributor: | Yari Film Group Freestyle Releasing Destination Films[1] |
| Runtime: | 96 minutes |
| Country: | United States |
| Language: | English |
| Budget: | $20 million[2] |
| Gross: | $5.8 million[3] |
The Perfect Holiday is a 2007 American comedy film directed by Lance Rivera, starring Gabrielle Union, Morris Chestnut, Charlie Murphy, and Terrence Howard, and is produced by Academy Award-nominated actress Queen Latifah, who also serves as narrator. The film was released on December 12, 2007. It was also the first film by Destination Films to receive a wide release since Beautiful.
Benjamin (Morris Chestnut) is an aspiring songwriter who attempts to break into the music business by giving a copy of his recording track of a Christmas album to a rap artist named J-Jizzy (Charles Q. Murphy). Nancy (Union) is a divorced mother, who is too busy taking care of her three children to take care of herself. Her daughter Emily (Khail Bryant) overhears her mother say that she wished for a compliment from a man, and the daughter tells the local mall's Santa Claus about her mother's wish.
The Santa Claus turns out to be Benjamin, who notices Nancy. Later, while sitting in a Starbucks after his shift as Santa, Benjamin and his friend Jamal (Faizon Love) see Nancy go into a dry cleaners. Benjamin borrows Jamal's jacket, pretends to drop it off at the cleaners, tells Nancy that she's a very attractive woman (granting her wish), and leaves. Eventually, the two start to date and end up falling in love—without Ben realizing that Nancy's ex-husband is J-Jizzy.
Things take a turn for the worse, however, because Nancy's oldest son, John-John (Malik Hammond) is jealous of Benjamin going out with his mother and plots to break up the relationship. What follows is a series of funny and touching scenes that show viewers what "family" is really about.
Queen Latifah and Terrence Howard play omniscient roles in the movie. Howard is a mischievous and sly angel named "Bah Humbug", while Latifah is the kind, thoughtful angel, called "Mrs. Christmas".
The film was neither a critical nor commercial success. Rotten Tomatoes reported that of critics gave positive reviews based on reviews. It has a consensus stating The Perfect Holiday is the perfect example of Christmas movie clichés run amok.[4] Metacritic gave the film a 32 out of 100 approval rating based on 22 reviews, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".[5] On its opening weekend, it opened poorly at #6 with $2.2 million.[6] The film grossed $5.8 million domestically.