The Best Man Holiday

It’s been 14 years since 1999’s The Best Man, but Christmas sequel The Best Man Holiday proves worth the wait. Original writer and director Malcolm D. Lee reunites his cast, featuring Taye Diggs, Nia Long, Morris Chestnut, Harold Perrineau, Sanaa Lathan and Terrence Howard, for a glitzy holiday weekend of secrets, surprises and sex. An ensemble rom-com like this lives and breathes by the characters, and the cast’s relaxed connections and built-in history create some considerable charm. A cancer subplot ratchets up emotions in the back half, but Lee gracefully straddles the thin line between cathartic and cloying. The last twenty minutes flip between half a dozen climactic story devices in machine-gun manner, but it’s Christmas, so that’s forgiven, if not kindly appreciated. It’s a lot of very beautiful people, wearing even better looking sweaters, coming together for laughs, kisses and tears. Hopefully, we won’t have to wait so long for the next sequel. —Jacob Boon