Courtesy of CBS Films
If you’re looking for a Christmas nostalgia film with a bit of a St. Louis twist, take note of the holiday comedy Love the Coopers. St. Louis’ own John Goodman stars as family patriarch Sam, husband to Charlotte (Diane Keaton). Their marriage has become a dull, sterile affair, so they’ve decided to separate—and they’re planning to spring this news on their grown kids while they’re home for Christmas. The children, of course, have their own problems and foibles, and things get complicated pretty quickly. As the press notes quip, the film “puts the ‘fun’ in dysfunction.” Goodman describes his character as “the padre in the family…he’s kind of out of it. Charlotte does all the work and all the gifting. And he might be on his way out because they are having trouble in their marriage, so it might be their last Christmas together. They’ve lost track of each other over the years.”
Goodman says it’s the first time he’s played a grandfather, and he leaped at the chance to work with Keaton, as well as some of the other crackerjack actors in the cast, including Ed Helms (who plays Goodman’s son), Olivia Wilde, and the always-marvelous Alan Arkin. Oh, and some kids and dogs, too. “I felt like W.C. Fields in The Bank Dick,” the actor says drily.
Some of Goodman’s most vivid memories of childhood Christmases in St. Louis, of course, are cinematic. “For good times, we’d go over to my aunt’s house every year,” he says. “We’d watch A Christmas Carol.”
Love The Coopers opens November 13 in wide release. For more information, go to cbsfilms.com/love-the-coopers.
