Why 'Christmas Vacation' is the best holiday movie ever

After re-watching the 1989 hit National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation on the big screen today I am now convinced that it is the best holiday-themed movie of all time. It is as wall-to-wall hilarious as Elf, it's got just as much heart as It's a Wonderful Life and enough edge to stand toe-to-toe with the likes of Gremlins.

It's a surprisingly touching movie. Despite all of its mayhem and slapstick, it's a very sweet film. Clark Griswold's desire to provide his extended family with the "perfect" Christmas is both noble and endearingly doomed.

And, in this film, Chevy Chase does some of his best work ever.

Although he is best known for (and usual excels at) aloof characters who sort of play things close to the vest, here he allows himself to be vulnerable in a way that he never did in another movie role.

It's a mistake to consider Griswold an idiot. He's not. He's naive maybe, certainly earnest to a fault, but he is relentlessly witty and knowing. Take for instance his scenes with the uproarious Cousin Eddie (played flawlessly by the underrated Randy Quaid). Their scenes are a tour de force in passive aggressive underplaying.

Each line is laugh out loud funny, with Chase deftly playing off of Quaid's obliviousness. These scenes also speak to a universal truth -- the awkwardness of navigating unwanted family members -- which is such a huge part of the holiday season.

Chevy Chase and Randy Quaid in Christmas Vacation

The film also has a spot-on sense of how much the holidays are about the best of intentions, which almost always fall short. Everyone wants to be with family, to have their home be pristine, to serve the ideal dinner -- but like most things we over-prepare for, stuff becomes unpredictable and chaotic. Christmas Vacation takes the concept of the "gradual breakdown" to its furthest extremes -- it is a broad comedy, after all -- but I think the reason it has stood the test of time is that the honest, truthful elements of it keep it grounded and relatable.

This may be a white, suburban, middle class family -- but everyone can relate to the horror of griping elderly relatives, or the anxiety of setting up Christmas lights. And once the film gets rolling, and the disasters start piling up, we all can cheer on Clark's inevitable meltdown, even if we're relieved that we've escaped the same fate.

My favorite part of this film is Clark Griswold's brief dissent into madness. Not only is his "where's the Tylenol?" rant one of the best in movies, but there are few left field jokes more amusing to me than his substituting "coffin" for "tree," just brilliant.

Christmas movies can often be a touch too cute and predictable, and this film effectively avoids most of the worst cliches of the genre. Even the feel-good ending comes after a totally unique sequence where a full-blown swat team descends upon the Griswold household, and Clark's wife uses one hand to cover her husband's genitals while keeping another one up in defense.

Watching this film around the holidays has become a welcome tradition for me. I know every line, every joke by heart and yet they still bring a smile to my face, and occasionally a tear to me eye.