Tired subject. Too many holes. 1.Why did dad leave? Maybe 7 kids were too much for him. 2.Maybe mom was nuts. 3.And what's Nora's story? Shes from Boston and......? 4.And the pregnant sister? The scene where the brother goes to save her is weak. 5.Why does Ed still live with mom? Each sibling has issues. 6.What's the relationship between the old sick lady and the mother? This isn't new. I grew up almost next door to Mr. Burns, and large Irish families aren't all dysfunctional. I was sorry that the mother gave in in the end. He did manage to leave room for seven sequels.I don't think Ed needed to have seven siblings. If he reduced the number of siblings and their issues, he would have been able to add more substance to the main subject...mom and dad's relationship.

A big family is a catalog of problems, a big family at the holidays is a catalog of problems reaching its boiling point. If you've lived in a big family you know it, if you've seen one or two films about big families, you probably know it too. Here lies the failure of this nice little film. Don't get me wrong, it's fairly well acted, the director choosing a low key approach that suits the genre well, so it's not a catastrophe, in fact it might be a good pastime if you can relate. Thing is the plot is not only loaded with cliché, it's devoid of any refreshing surprise or plot twist. And it tends to solve most of the problems it's looking into in a superficial almost casual manner. An abusive husband, falling for a creepy old man, falling for a girl who's too young for you, everything solved nice and easy, like it was no more than a ploy to cover a few more minutes on screen. It's not a good feeling to end with after a film with which we're suppose to relate.