Starring Ben Affleck, James Gandolfini, Christina Applegate, and Catherine O'Hara. Rated PG.

Prior to being driven to Promises Rehabilitation Centre by Charlie Sheen in August 2001, Ben Affleck was a glowing talent. Not yet 30, he had received a best screenplay Oscar (Good Will Hunting) and starred in films that were good and/or making lots of money: Chasing Amy, Armageddon, Shakespeare in Love, Dogma, Boiler Room, and Bounce. In his sobriety, Affleck has said yes to Paycheck, Gigli, and Jersey Girl while saying no to more of the rather excellent Daredevil. And now here's Surviving Christmas. It's a movie getting horrendous reviews after a troubled production (costar James Gandolfini reportedly revolted on-set, refusing to speak lines that made no sense). A cynical person might suggest that Affleck resume drinking.

But that's what happens when you read the tabloids. Celebrity culture leads to the cheesiest form of film writing, in which the review is a convenient excuse to pile on to the woes of the currently vulnerable bigshot. Gigli (unseen by me) was probably not the worst film ever made. (That would be Blankman, starring Damon Wayans.) But it came during the nadir of Affleck's Bennifer era and was therefore accounted to scald the eyes, shrink the testicles, and bring pestilence upon the land. Affleck's image has not recovered. Accordingly, Surviving Christmas is being compared negatively to Gigli.

This must stop.

I'm not saying that Surviving Christmas is innovative or slick--hell, it's not even competent in parts. I don't like embarrassment humour, and I endure such sequences as I do riding the Octopus: by averting my eyes and focusing on my breathing. But the movie does have some interesting features. It's a critique of consumerism wrapped in a black comedy starring some strong personalities. Affleck plays an emotionally void ad executive who attempts to exorcise his annual Christmas phobia by doing a healing ceremony at his old family home. The new owners, played by James Gandolfini and Catherine O'Hara, ambush the eccentric intruder, whose bizarre (concussed?) response is to hire them to simulate his parents for the holidays. Christina Applegate and Josh Zuckerman play his offended temporary siblings.

Though riddled with lame gags, perturbing meanness, and a theoretically sympathetic protagonist who is basically deluded and scary, the movie has its pleasures. Foremost is Applegate's performance. She does not condescend to the film, is believable, and looks wonderful. Similarly, Zuckerman's persecution is funny because it seems real. Affleck is nutty and game. He's going to be skewered, but I can't think of anyone who could have made this sociopathically impulsive character seem lovable. Well, Bill Murray of 15 years ago, whom Affleck channels a little bit in this movie. That's not a bad career goal for an actor these days; it beats the heck out of being Ben Affleck.