As the holidays approach, one family-themed Christmas movie already is heading to the multiplexes. In “Almost Christmas” (opening Friday), an all-star cast portrays a upper-middle-class family coming together after the death of the family’s matriarch — the anchor of the whole group.
Danny Glover plays the dad, a devoted husband who, while deeply grieving, understands the importance of continuing the traditions his late wife so beautifully coordinated. The kids are played by Gabrielle Union, Kimberly Elise and Romany Malco, with Jessie Usher as the baby of the family.
Other relatives, in-laws and family friends are portrayed by Mo’Nique, J.B. Smoove, Nicole Ari Parker, rapper-turned-actor D.C. Young Fly and Omar Epps.
For Epps, “the genius” of the script was how it “flipped the usual storyline for something like this. Normally, it’s the patriarch who passes, and it’s the mother who holds it all together. Here the roles are reversed, and we quickly see it was the mother who knew all the kids’ secrets and understood what it took to keep everything on an even keel.”
In the film, Epps plays the family’s longtime next-door neighbor who has always been secretly in love with Union’s character — now recently divorced and a single mom.
As for Glover, “Danny is a such a legend and he brings great gravitas to this role,” Epps said during a Chicago visit. “But it’s him that’s trying to keep his sanity while the kids are squabbling and all that. Ironically, he’s the one they should be catering to — and not the other way around.”
For D.C. Young Fly, the experience of being part of a cast of such well-established stars was a total trip.
“Here I was running around with all these A-list actors. I wanted to constantly grab my pen and notepad to make notes about how they did it all. It was so unbelievable for me! I grew up watching all of them!”
Pointing to Epps, he said, “This was ‘Juice’ right here,” referring to the actor’s 1992 film. “Mo’Nique? That was Miss Parker for me,” recalling her former TV series, “The Parkers.”
“And Danny Glover? He will always be Murtaugh from ‘Lethal Weapon.’ But, of course, now he’s a lot more for me — having been with him in this movie.”
