“Surviving Christmas” opens with a montage ofChicago citizens that depict holiday hell.

A man who places his entire wallet, watch and even wedding ringin the bucket of a Salvation Army Santa dramatizes the horror somefeel during the holidays.

An elderly woman who prepares her oven for cookies and decidesto stick her head inside more clearly demonstrates the feeling ofaudiences sitting through this mediocre film.

“Surviving Christmas” stars Ben Affleck (JerseyGirl, Daredevil, Good Will Hunting) as Drew Latham, a marketingaccount manager who walks the line between eccentric and psychotic.Latham invites his shallow girlfriend, Missy (Jennifer Morrison) tojoin him on an exotic vacation in Fiji for Christmas and shebecomes upset, telling him she is spending Christmas with herfamily and he should be doing the same.

Faced with another Christmas alone, Latham sets out to rent thefamily who now occupies his childhood home.

It gets dumber. The new owners of his home, the Valco family, donot take kindly to the stranger at the door looking to shareChristmas with them for $250,000. Tom and Christine Valco (JamesGandolfini and Catherine O’Hara) quickly accept the offer,but they resent every second that Latham occupies their normal,grouchy lives.

Brian (Josh Zuckerman), the Valco’s Internet-porn obsessedson, provides the comedy to a plot that’s so bad, vulgarhumor is a welcome relief.

The Valco’s daughter Alicia (Christina Applegate) shows upat her family’s home and a love story is forced into theoverly artificial plot.

What follows are predictable twists littered withclichés. The family begins to enjoy spreading holiday cheerwith Latham. A surprise visit from the ex-girlfriend ruinseverything, and then through no real process, all is well.

Even for a comedy “Surviving Christmas” stretchesreality so far past recognition it hurts. This family has a man inthe home for one weekend and in return the family receives$250,000.

The family acts like going shopping with him is like havingtheir teeth pulled. Comic opportunity or not, free shopping tripsand large sums of money should earn red carpet treatment and allthe fake smiles one family can deliver.

The acting in “Surviving Christmas” is difficult tobear. Affleck is better known for his previous relationship thanhis talent and Applegate’s dialogue is so limited she neverhas a chance to shine. To think that Gandolfini is taking years offfrom filming “The Sopranos” to make garbage like thisis sad.

Don’t look to “Surviving Christmas” for aclassic holiday comedy like “National Lampoon’sChristmas Vacation” or “A Christmas Story.”Instead, this film falls into the recent trend of poorly doneanti-holiday films like “Bad Santa.”

DreamWorks may have released the first of this holidayseason’s themed movies, but it also may be the worst. Maybeit did moviegoers a favor by releasing “SurvivingChristmas” before Halloween, so that by the time the holidaysdo arrive, this film will be long gone.

“Surviving Christmas” is rated PG-13 and is intheaters now.