Eddie Murphy Takes a Pleasant But Uninspired Trip Down Candy Cane Lane

Let’s get one thing straight from the jump: I am a shameless mark for Christmas movies. I love ’em, and I don’t just mean the usual rotation of basic-cable classics that make the rounds this time of year. I mean that if your movie is covered in Christmas decorations and involves some basic notion of holiday cheer and overcoming dubious odds to learn the true meaning of the season, I’m in. It’s my blessing and my curse.
But even I am aware enough to understand that there are two kinds of Christmas movies: The Ones You Watch and The Ones You Have On. Everyone’s standards for what fits into these categories varies, but you know it when you see it. It’s a Wonderful Life, Miracle on 34th Street, Elf… these are movies you settle in to enjoy, at least for the first time in any given season. Then there’s whatever else just happens to be on cable or the homepage of your friendly neighborhood streaming service. You’re not really watching it, but it’s covered in lights and garlands and there are pleasant enough people on the screen, so it’s there while you’re hanging lights or folding laundry.
Which brings us to Candy Cane Lane, the new holiday comedy from director Reginald Hudlin, starring Eddie Murphy in the classic role of Christmas Dad Who Loses Sight of What’s Important. Everything about it is pleasant enough, from the cast of stars to the decorations to the promise of gentle, family-friendly comedy all geared toward an inevitable happy ending. But the emphasis belongs on “enough,” and that’s the problem. For all its grand seasonal trappings, this is a film that plays like it was tailor-made as background noise for the Christmas season. It’s a Christmas Movie You Have On, and coming from a major comedy star and a respected filmmaker, that can’t help but be a letdown.
Murphy is Chris Carver, whose name is Chris Carver because it’s a Christmas movie and he likes to make his own decorations out of wood, so he’s a Christmas Carver. Will this movie get any more subtle along the way? No it will not, because Chris has a wife named Carol (Tracee Ellis Ross) and his youngest daughter is named Holly (Madison Thomas). In case you didn’t get it yet, the Carvers are Christmas People.
Which is good, because the Carvers live on a whole street of Christmas People, a street so attuned to the holiday that it hosts an annual house decorating contest big enough to be broadcast by a local L.A. cable station. But this year, the stakes are higher. A prize of $100,000 is at stake, Chris just got laid off from his job, and he sees winning Candy Cane Lane as the key to unlocking a better holiday, and a better future, for his family. Luckily for him, a new Christmas store just opened up, run by a mysterious woman named Pepper (Jillian Bell), who promises him the best decorations in town if he just signs the receipt. Naturally, Chris signs and gets his prize-winning décor. What could possibly go wrong?