A Christmas adventure gets way out of control.
Jonathan Levine’s The Night Before was sold as a raunchy, drug-filled Christmas adventure starring three of Hollywood’s most likable actors: Seth Rogen, Anthony Mackie and Joseph Gordon-Levitt. If it had been just that premise, it almost certainly would have been a fun movie, but The Night Before is much more and much better than its marketing gives it credit for.
We want to hear it.
The comedy follows three childhood best friends — Rogen’s Isaac, Mackie’s Chris and Levitt’s Ethan — who began a yearly tradition to celebrate Christmas together after a tragedy struck Ethan’s life. They stick with that yearly celebration of spending the holiday with their friend-family for over a decade, but as they enter their 30s and family and fame demand their own time commitments, the guys decide to end the tradition with one last hurrah.
During one of their earlier Christmases together, they had heard about a legendary secret party called the Nutcracker Ball, and it becomes their white whale. As Isaac and Chris move on with their lives — Isaac is about to start a family with his wife Betsy (Jillian Bell), while Chris is rising to fame as a football star after an incredible season — Ethan is stuck, clinging to their tradition as his life stalls out around him. He finds three tickets to the Nutcracker Ball during that last Christmas together, and drags his best friends along on a crazy adventure as a way to embrace their youths by living out this old dream.
We want to hear it.
The Night Before presents itself as an R-rated Christmas fairytale, but its light tone belies the fact that this is a coming-of-adulthood comedy. One of the movie’s most impressive strengths is that it balances each of its characters’ personal journeys with the boisterous adventure at its core. Even though Ethan is initially showcased as the character who doesn’t have his life figured out, it becomes clear pretty quickly that each of the guys is lying to himself about a significant element of his life, and each has to come to terms with that by the end of the film. That none of these storylines outweigh the others or the fun at the center of the movie is a testament to the empathetic writing and directing of Levine, whose previous works include 50/50, Warm Bodies and The Wackness.
Much of the joy of The Night Before is following along with the journey to the crazy places this adventure to find the Nutcracker Ball takes the guys, especially since along the way they cross paths with the movie’s impressive slate of supporting actors. Lizzy Caplan, Mindy Kaling, Lourraine Touissant and Ilana Glazer give performances that range from hilarious to heartwarming, and even Miley Cyrus shows up. It’s Michael Shannon, though, who really steals the show as Ethan, Chris and Isaac’s pot dealer, and he elevates what could be a bit part into something that is much more significant and surprising.
We want to hear it.
The Night Before pays homage to many classic Christmas movies and stories that have come before it, from Big and Home Alone to A Christmas Carol and, of course, ‘Twas The Night Before Christmas. Its own framework as a whimsical fairytale makes it likely that this could be remembered as a new generation’s go-to holiday film. If there is one criticism of that aspiration, it’s that the movie never hits much harder than that, and some of the big personal revelations at the end of the story lack the emotional resonance they need. There’s not much baggage left after each character gets their happy ending, which ends up hewing closer to a holiday folk tale than reality.
The Night Before works on many levels, both as a funny, drug-filled comedy and as a more emotional and relatable personal story. The film plays all of its stars and supporting actors to their strengths, particularly Michael Shannon, who is a standout as a drug dealer who’s more than meets the eye. The movie doesn’t perfectly stick its landing, but it does have enough heart and holiday spirit to earn a place under the tree (or menora) this year.
