Synopsis

For Cloverdale, optometrist Steve Finch, no time of the year can compare to the glory of the Christmas season. For many years now, Steve's carried on a series of heartfelt but barely tolerated Yuletide traditions despite his family's exhausted protests. But Steve's Christmas bliss is suddenly destroyed when slippery car salesman Buddy Hall moves in next door and Steve finds himself going toe-to-toe with his new neighbor. Buddy quickly begins to undermine Steve's title as the local "King of Christmas" when he sets out to festoon his new house with enough glowing holiday lights to make it visible from outer space. Motivated by the celebrity he's achieving with his dazzling, megawatt decorations, Buddy adds a live manger scene complete with donkeys, cows, sheep, and an imported camel leaving Steve in meltdown mode. Finally Steve & Buddy's wives, who have become good friends, give the guys an ultimatum and a truce is called. Will the truce last or is it just a matter of time before it is broken?

After The Premiere

"A good laugh. Predictable but funny." AH "The kids loved it. A good family movie for the holidays." DM "A great family film lots of fun, quite a few laughs, Danny De Vito was his usual brilliant self, the story was a little predictable with the usual happy ending but good to watch all the same." KF "The film was also a nice reminder that Christmas is not just about the fancy decorations and gifts, but about spending quality time with family, something that can often be forgotten with the commercial aspect of it." VT

"Really funny... I enjoyed it. Good movie to choose for families at Christmas!!" AH "It was a very good film for adults & children. We enjoyed it very much." FB "Went without seeing a single preview so knew absolutely nothing about who was in it or what it was about. A really nice Christmas film!" KL "The kids really enjoyed the film - especially their favourite scene - the camel saliva. Lovely." CA

The Inside Story What kind of guy would need to put up thousands of Christmas lights on his house? And what must it be like to live next door to a house like this? Those two questions became the basis for Matt Corman and Chris Ord’s original script for "Deck The Halls", which began its speedy sleigh ride to the big screen as a discussion the writers had with producer Michael Costigan. "We liked the notion of two very different guys genuinely trying to celebrate Christmas, each in his own way," relates Corman. Ord added, "Steve and Buddy have similar hopes and dreams for their families and for the Christmas holiday. They just don’t communicate well enough to find that common ground. That was really fun territory to explore." Regency Enterprises bought their screenplay and that brought director John Whitesell to the project. Whitesell then brought in screenwriter Don Rhym ("Big Momma's House I & II" and "The Santa Clause 2"). Did he have a slant on the story? "In a way, we’re all either a 'Steve' or a 'Buddy'. You either like things controlled and organized or you like to fly by the seat of your pants," he offered. "Neither are bad guys, they’re just living day to day as best they can. It was important to show how both men were missing the big picture. How they’re both letting their obsessions distract them from what Christmas and their families really mean." And their houses? While scouting in Vancouver, the production uncovered a large, open park field with several houses on its borders that could help duplicate a surrounding neighborhood. The exteriors of the homes were built to spec on the field to provide a natural perspective between the windows of the Finch house and the actual visual of the Hall house. The interiors were built separately, in an area about 15 minutes away. "Creating these houses was quite a technical challenge," says production designer Bill Brzeski. "Trying to get any one element right wasn’t particularly hard, but putting all the pieces of the puzzle together was another story." Was there a specific style requirement for the houses? "It was important to pick architectural styles with a lot of flat surfaces so once the Christmas lights were added they’d really pop out," Brzeski explained. "The average house has too many windows and peaks and corners to accomplish that." With the houses constructed the next hurdle to overcome was shooting in Vancouver, which at that time of the year only enjoyed six hours of daylight. "I felt that the more we could shoot during the daytime, when the actors would be most awake, the better the comedy would play," says Whitesell. The solution? To cover both houses with a huge tent. That way the set would be in daylight. After all, about sixty percent of the story is set in the day time. The Sprung Company, a Texas-based group that builds vast temporary structures for military installations, conventions, and other large-scale events, was contracted to create the immense covering. The building, which went up in fifteen days, was made primarily of steel beams and cloth fabric, and essentially turned the location into a sound stage. Production lighting was then hung and snow dressing, a mixture of trees, and other forms of wintry landscaping were added as well. "Creating the illusion this way was a really fascinating process," executive producer and unit production manager Jeremiah Samuels said. "Once it was finished it looked exactly as planned; two houses in a neighborhood at night." Like many, I wanted to know about all the lighting used for the christmas decorations on Buddy's house. "My vision was to create something that hadn’t been seen before," says Whitesell. Production designer Brzeski recalled, "the challenge was to do something that the public generally can’t do. That’s tough because the public is really creative and inventive; it’s amazing what people put up on their houses. We had to make the decorations over the top, yet still make it seem like something the average Joe could actually attain." Lighting designer Jason McKinnon was given the nod to create the various stages of lighting developement. "The way the film progresses, there are basically nine stages of lighting," he said. "We go from zero, which is no lights on the house, all the way up through seven, which is the big light show with Buddy in the sleigh at the controls. Then we have level eight when Buddy starts to pull the lights off, then level nine, in which the whole town helps him put the lights back up. Since level seven was the biggest thing we were going to see; that is, a choreographed light show to music; that’s where I started my design." That's a lot of lights. What about those that burn-out? "Replacing them could’ve been a job for ten people alone," McKinnon said. "Most of the normal Christmas lights we used, which were no different from what anyone would buy in a hardware store, just aren’t designed to work as hard as our lights did. Every time we’d look up, another twenty lights would be blown. Sometimes, though, it was just a matter of going up and punching them or giving them a little tweak, and back on they’d go. It was a real lesson in the 'quality' of your average Christmas light!" There was something else nagging me. If they were filming in Vancouver in summer, where did all the snow come from? Production designer Bill Brzeski let me in on the secret. "Making winter look like winter, especially in the middle of summer, is never simple, but we perfected a number of tricks here, especially with our 'snow', that really helped the seasonal transformation," he said. " This 'movie snow' was made from fluffy, unrolled paper that was powdered, bleached and then put through a Krendel machine, a device that’s used to blow insulation into attics." One aspect which isn't faked is the singing of Kristin Chenoweth. Most will know her as Annabeth Schott in "The West Wing", but did you know she is a TONY Award winner on the stage? Kristin has performed with The New York Philharmonic, Boston Pops, National Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Symphony and the San Francisco Symphony. She appeared on the stage in London for director Sam Mendes's "Divas at Donmar", which opened to rave reviews. What They Had To Say "You keep thinking, 'Oh, I’ve got to pretend to act cold and I’m sweating.' In some ways it’s probably easier than if we were actually shooting in the dead of winter, but when you’re ice skating with the blazing summer sun bouncing off that white plastic ice, it’s definitely a little jarring," Matthew Broderick said.
"It didn’t matter that it was summer, shooting the film just got me in a holiday mood," maintains Kristin Chenoweth, a.k.a. Mrs Buddy Hall. "So much so, that I ended up going out and buying Christmas gifts for everyone in the cast. It was corny to do, but fun."
"You just have to program all these things into your day, like making sure not to get tanned because it’s supposed to be December, or staying cool between takes even though you’re shooting an event called ‘Winterfest.’ And, then there’s the fake snow blowing into your mouth while you’re saying your lines. Acting school never prepares you for that!" says former "Sex and the City" star, Kristin Davis a.k.a Kelly Finch.
"It’s fine to have a whole bunch of great lighting, but it all needs to match the soundtrack," McKinnon states. "John Whitesell and I went back and forth about the music, then we both went back and forth with our composer, George Clinton."
"We didn’t want Danny in anything that looked particularly new," says cotume designer Carol Ramsey. "Everything, including the suits and sport jackets he wore to work at Murray Motors, needed to look a bit off, like he was just slapping these outfits together."
"It’s a movie that, I think, will remind audiences not to let the pursuit of good things blind us to the right things," notes Don Rhymer.
"The lights alone aren’t what’s most impressive, it’s the way they move; what turns on and what goes off," says Lighting designer Jason McKinnon. "Ultimately, it was all about making the light show as dynamic as possible." The Verdict "Look it's not the funniest film about Christmas that's for sure, but there's still plenty here for most moviegoers to get their laughs out of. I mean if you can forgive and laugh at "Borat", why wouldn't you find this funny? The answer to that question is simple; because we hold the crass commercialism of christmas so close to our hearts, we expect every yuletide film to be so sickeningly sacharrin sweet, our souls will be purged of all the guilt that results from the annual splurge. "Deck The Halls", like "Bad Santa" puts the Christmas spirit on the backburner as neighbours Steve Finch and Buddy Hall go toe to toe with disasterous results. But as "Deck The Halls" shows in its final act, christmas isn't about one-upsmanship, jealousy or grudges. It's is all about lending a hand; forgiving those who have wronged us; never, never, underestimating the true value of family and remembering the true spirit of Christmas is not about who has the best christmas decorations or how much that present cost. It's about joy, happiness and love. The things that money never can buy. Worth a look at. 2 1/2 STARS." Cast & Crew Bytes "DECK THE HALLS" stars .......
EMMY & Golden Globe winner Danny DeVito ["Death to Smoochy", "Big Fish" and "Be Cool"]; Matthew Broderick ["Inspector Gadget", "The Stepford Wives" and "The Producers"]; Two time SAG Award winner Kristin Davis ["Traveling Companion", "The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl 3-D" and "The Shaggy Dog"]; Alia Shawkat ["Three Kings", "Rebound" and "Queen of Cactus Cove"], Garry Chalk ["Touched by a Killer", "Lone Hero" and "Freddy vs Jason"] and TONY Award winner Kristin Chenoweth ["Topa Topa Bluffs", "Bewitched ", "The Pink Panther" and "Running with Scissors"] as Tia Hall.
"DECK THE HALLS" was .......
directed by John Whitesell ["Calendar Girl", "See Spot Run", "Malibu's Most Wanted" and "Big Momma's House 2"]; edited by Paul Hirsch ["Footloose", "Ferris Bueller's Day Off", "Mission: Impossible" and "Ray"]; production design by Bill Brzeski ["As Good as It Gets" and "Stuart Little I & II"]; costume design by Carol Ramsey ["The Santa Clause", "Bad Boys II" and "Meet the Fockers"]; cinematography by Mark Irwin ["There's Something About Mary", "Me, Myself & Irene" and "Malibu's Most Wanted"]; original music by George S Clinton ["The Astronaut's Wife", "New York Minute" and "The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause"] produced by Michael Costigan ["Brokeback Mountain"] and Jeremiah Samuels ["The Rules Of Attraction", "House of Sand and Fog" and "Big Momma's House 2"]. Run Time 89 minutes Rated PG [AUST] Copyright ©2006 - 20th Century Fox - All Rights Reserved Copyright Protected © 2006 - Impact Internet Services - All Rights Reserved