Memorable Christmas movies about dysfunctional families

Well, the chaos was so intense for the McCallisters they left a small child at home alone by accident. Fortunately, that child had the ingenuity and the bloodlust to take on a couple of robbers, but that’s still pretty rough. Plus, before Kevin was even left home alone, there was clearly a lot of dysfunction in the family, be it between Buzz and Kevin or Uncle Frank and Kevin.

The intent with “Almost Christmas” seemed to be to make a family Christmas dramedy with a cast of recognizable actors, but not big-budget famous actors, in hopes of turning a solid profit on a reasonable budget. You know, the kind of movie that has the likes of J.B. Smoove and John Michael Higgins in the cast. “Almost Christmas” is about a family coming together for the holidays after the death of the family matriarch, and while it got mixed reviews and did not make a huge impact, it did indeed manage to make back triple its reasonable budget at the box office.

If it feels on the nose for the dysfunctional family in a film to be named the Kranks, yes, it is. Also, yes, that is about the quality of the comedy in this film. “Christmas with the Kranks” is based, oddly, on a John Grisham book that isn’t a legal thriller. Tim Allen and Jamie Lee Curtis play a couple who opt to skip Christmas, which creates an uproar in the neighborhood, and is further complicated when their daughter surprisingly visits them.

“Daddy’s Home” was dumb, but it was a hit and Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg enjoyed working together. Thus, a sequel was born, and of course this time they made it a holiday movie. “Daddy’s Home 2” did the obvious thing, which was to introduce Will and Mark’s parents. To the extent people remember “Daddy’s Home 2,” it’s for the fact the bold decision was made to cast Mel Gibson as one of the fathers.

You may not think of “Edward Scissorhands” as a Christmas movie, in part because of the aesthetic intent of Tim Burton. Burton set the movie in a suburban town in a perpetually sunny place where winter isn’t really a thing to create a strange sense of disconnect. Also, yes, it doesn’t really become a Christmas movie until the climax, but then it very much is. The Boggs household seemed to be a bit dysfunctional to begin with, but that definitely picked up once Edward moved in with the family.

A married couple is a family, and the couple at the center of Stanley Kubrick’s final cinematic outing is definitely dysfunctional. That’s the entire driving force of this strange, surreal film. “Eyes Wide Shut” is also a strange variation on a Christmas movie, but the temporal setting is quite beneficial to the film. While “Eyes Wide Shut” alienated many at the time, it has since largely been considered a Kubrick classic.

Look, all we remember about “The Family Stone” is that in the trailer Luke Wilson says to Sarah Jessica Parker, “You have a freak flag, you’re just afraid to fly it.” Other than that, we just remember it as a vague, somewhat generic Christmas movie about Parker meeting her boyfriend’s family. She doesn’t get along with them, complications ensue, and then it all works out in the end, naturally. It is a Christmas movie, after all.

This is the movie with the poster where Reese Witherspoon is in heels and standing on like a dozen boxes to be as tall as Vince Vaughn. The couple have to, well, celebrate four Christmases. That’s because they both have divorced parents, and so it is assuredly not surprising that this is a movie about dysfunctional families.

Back-to-back Vince Vaughn movies! While “Four Christmases” is a shrug, “Fred Claus” is aggressively bad. The family in dysfunction in this Christmas flick, though, is the Claus family. Vaughn plays Santa’s ne’er-do-well brother in Full Vince Vaughn Mode. In the right hands, that used to really work, but this is “Fred Claus” we’re talking about here.

“The Holdovers” is an homage to ‘70s dramedies that is set in 1970 and shot like movies of that time. The titular characters are kids who have to stay at their boarding school over the Christmas break to be watched over by the curmudgeonly classics teacher and the cafeteria manager grieving her dead son. The most dysfunctional family, though, is the Tullys, the family that includes Angus, played by breakthrough star Dominic Sessa.

This was the last foray into Jonathan Taylor Thomas starring in movies. He plays a college student and, well, he didn’t really have the chops for actual adult roles. While the film is a cross-country adventure movie, at its heart is quite the family dysfunction. Thomas’ character hasn’t been home since his mom died and his father got remarried, so his father tells him that if he can make it home by Christmas dinner he will get his father’s Porsche. Normal stuff!

What could possibly create more dysfunction in a family than somebody dying and becoming a snowman? To be fair, the family, whose last name is literally Frost, wasn’t doing great to begin with. Jack has been too busy with his band to be a present father. Also, yes, his name is Jack Frost before he dies and becomes a snowman. This is a remarkably dumb movie.

Christmas and palace intrigue? “The Lion in Winter,” a classic costume drama from the 1960s, is about England's Henry II setting his line of succession. This happens to occur during the Christmas season in 1183. The film was nominated for seven Oscars, and Katharine Hepburn won one of her four Oscars for her turn as Eleanor of Aquitaine.

The Griswolds are perhaps the quintessential dysfunctional film family. When you throw in Uncle Eddie at the holidays, though, that just ramps things up a notch. After the jet-setting “European Vacation” flopped, the “Vacation” franchise opted to stay close to home. This is, instead, a film about the holiday vacation away from work and school, bringing the Griswolds all together to sew chaos in their own backyard.

How do you know a dark comedy from the ‘90s isn’t going to be a good watch? When Denis Leary features prominently. Leary plays a burglar who takes a family hostage during the holidays. However, get this: The husband and wife of the family are dealing with a lot of strife, so Leary ends up being a de facto marriage counselor.

Yes, “Die Hard” is an iconic action movie. It’s maybe the best action movie ever made. Let’s not forget that the action is kicked off thanks to family dysfunction, though. After all, John McClane and Holly have been estranged, which is why Holly is in Los Angeles and John is visiting from New York. Also, had John and Holly not fought prior to the arrival of Hans Gruber and his gang, John likely would have been immediately taken hostage.

“Violent Night” proved okay, if not quite what we were hoping for. It is a violent Christmas action film with a Santa Claus who knows how to handle himself, but we wish it had been a bit funnier. That being said, it’s a nice change of pace from the usual holiday fare, and David Harbour is good as Santa. On top of that, the action takes place at the mansion belonging to an extremely rich, extremely dysfunctional family.