“The Night Before” seems like a better idea in concept than it actually ended up being. Blend the classic Christmas films audiences have grown up on with the stoner comedies that Seth Rogen and producer Evan Goldberg have made their livelihoods on (Pineapple Express, This is the End, The Interview, etc). But the problems come in the execution, with certain scenes hitting the right balance of holiday cheers and childish humor, and other scenes falling disappointingly flat.
The story follows three childhood friends on Christmas Eve, celebrating their tradition of travelling around New York and hitting all the bars, clubs and parties they can. Their tradition arose when Ethan, played by a surprisingly somber Joseph Gordon-Levitt, had his parents tragically die on Christmas and his two friends Isaac and Chris, Seth Rogen and Anthony Mackie respectively, took him under their wing for Christmas cheer.
Each of the three friends is going through their own problems: Ethan can’t let go of his past and is in a troubling relationship with his on-again-off-again girlfriend Diana, played by Lizzy Caplan. Isaac is going to be a father with his wife Betsy, hilariously played by Jillian Bell, and he is nervous about the new responsibility. Chris is a pro football player and doing steroids, but he’s using his newfound success to help charities from his hometown, and he’s torn between keeping his glory and doing the right thing.
If these side plots don’t sound very funny, that’s because they aren’t. These stories offer the heart and the drama to the story. Each character gets about equal screen time, which was surprising to me since all the commercials seemed to focus on Rogen’s druggy trip. Chris has a particularly sweet moment with his mother and an early Christmas dinner that gave the film time to breathe amidst all the chaos.
I found most of the dramatic moments to hold up well. Thanks to trippy weed provided by a prophetic dealer named Mr. Green, played by a grizzly Michael Shannon, the audience gets a flashback to the day when Isaac and Chris meet up with Ethan about his parents. It was a surprisingly emotional scene and showcased the solid performances put up by the main cast.
The humor was much more up and down. Chris is always posting to social media to match his football persona and the hashtags and phrases he uses are just out of date enough to be irrelevant. It would have been funny if that were intentional, but the filmmakers made it seem like they were going for accuracy and it came off as lame.
Isaac is high on all sorts of drugs throughout the night, and his set pieces are funny half the time and bland the other half. For every hilarious scene of Rogen puking in a church, there’s a gross scene of him bleeding into a drink.
Some of the best laughs come from the references to other Christmas films. There’s something so satisfying about the weed dealer flying away like a guardian angel from “It’s a Wonderful Life” or Rogen turning to the camera and giving a “Home Alone” yell while high on shrooms. They’re simple little quips, but they hit the right note for holiday laughs.
The side characters do a better job with the humor while Gordon-Levitt and the main crew handle the emotional weight. Special shoutout to Bell for bringing a surprising amount of humor to a relatively minor role. James Franco also appears for a brief but hilarious cameo, which ends up being the funniest part of the film.
The worst part of the film comes in the sections that aren’t really funny or dramatic. A weirdly high amount of plot threads kind of go nowhere or don’t have a satisfying conclusion. Chris meets a girl that he chases for nearly 20 minutes of the film and it ends without resolution. Mindy Kaling is wasted potential during her time on screen and doesn’t get much going in her character’s story. And the end of the film just sort of happens with no big surprises or twists.
Overall, “The Night Before” is serviceable, but it isn’t going to become a holiday classic. The actors do a fine job, but the uneven story and wavering tone don’t do the film any favors. Honestly, “The Night Before” isn’t worth the price of admission.
_MOVE gives “The Night Before” two out of five stars._