It’s Seth Rogen who carries this dick-jokes-and-pot-heavy movie about three buddies marking the final year of their tradition of spending Christmas Eve together.
In the hands of an actor whose specialty doesn’t reside in the understated tossing off of funny throwaway lines, his role as an expectant father whose wife gives him a box of assorted drugs to enjoy with his pals might have veered into the obnoxious. Instead it was a pleasure to watch Rogen’s Isaac contend with his own magic-mushroom-addled brain as he, Ethan (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), and Chris (Anthony Mackie) attempt to find their way to the legendary and mysterious Nutcracker Ball.
I didn’t care nearly so much for the storylines of Chris — an NFL player enjoying a steroid-aided season — or Ethan, the only one of the three without a family of his own — and thus the only one reluctant for this to be the last of their annual holiday gatherings.
For as subversive and irreverent as The Night Before would like to be — with its celebration of recreational drug use, fluid attitudes about sexuality, and amusingly potty-mouthed wives and girlfriends — ultimately it delivers a big serving of conventional holiday cheer that reinforces that home is where the heart is, family is what really matters, and true love wins out in the end.
Which, I’ll admit, is what most of want from a Christmas comedy.
