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Family splashed
with a bit of magic makes The Perfect
Holiday. Nancy, a single mom (Gabrielle
Union) just wants a small slice of
heaven with a descent man on it for
Christmas. Benjamin, a young man seeking
a career in music (Morris Chestnut)
along with best bud Jamal (Faizon Love)
hold down average jobs as Santa and Elf;
as Nancy's youngest relays an overheard
message about her mom. As the chaos
begins to kick in Benjamin and Nancy
find themselves falling in love and a
small white lie fast! "Its about people trying to find balance in their lives.
You can find outside interests and not
be a bad mom. I always say a happy mom
makes for happy kids" say
Gabrielle Union. "It was
great..." says Morris.
"The thing about working with
Gabrielle... she's a good person. and
when your spending 12 hour days on a set
you want to be around people who you can
trust."
And happy is right as
Nancy's world goes from making sure the
homework is done to cooking great meals
and baking cakes. The kids see the
change in her and wonder what the cause
is. They hope its a reunion with
newly-divorced rapper dad J Jizzy
(Charlie Murphy) who seems to only have
time for making hits in music than with
his family. Actor Charlie Murphy loves
the idea of playing a hip hop artist in
the film. And is even more satisfied
with the 'Perfect' cast, "Being apart of
the cast..." says Murphy,
"Everybody that was in the movie I had
mad respect for. It was a huge honor for
me. To be in the mix of all those
players. You have to respect those
skills."
The Perfect Holiday
cast includes comedians, along with
Charlie Murphy, Faizon Love and Kat
Williams. As Jamal (Faizon Love) is
great as a sidekick, his role
immediately finds its own individuality
as he hooks up with 'Half & Half' star
Rachel True (Brenda). Other new faces
from the TV screen get a chance on the
silver screen as Jill Marie Jones joins
the cast as close friend Robin. Between
Brenda and Robin, Nancy is amongst the
best of company just as long as rapper
husband J Jizzy doesn't show up and with
his unlikely holiday cheer; a character
trait brought more to the surface by
manager/babysitter Delicious (Kat
Williams). Williams, whose roles are
normally just as quirky as Murphy and
Love takes a different route in The
Perfect Holiday. More acting and less
antics greatly display a look that may
take Williams towards more serious roles
in the near future. "The opportunity to
just be added to the list of names they
already had was amazing." says comedian
Kat Williams, "...and
the movie they did was a good feeling.
It was the nicest thing I'd ever done.
it felt wonderful for me."
Amongst the heavy
hitter casting is Director Lance Rivera.
More known for his musical past, Rivera
is largely focused on his film career.
Breakout film 'The Cookout' and dramatic
success story 'Life Support', Rivera is
steadily making strides on the silver
screen. His slow coming of age really
shows Rivera is picking is projects with
care and caution as this business isn't
financially rewarding to those who don't
think before they make major decision.
"I think that... coming from my
background and especially coming from a
music background... the difficulties for
me was the fact that explaining to
people that a black traditional movie
could work." says Rivera. "There
was never a traditional black Christmas
done... so this was a new and inventive
idea. I don't know why its never
happened in all these years. Even in
This Christmas ... they beat me to
the punch. They created the first film
but in the traditional sense of what
Santa Claus is but on an urban level."
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