Robert DeNiro in 'Everybody's Fine.'
Miramax

Robert DeNiro makes family holiday entertainment in Everybody's Fine.

People who prefer to spend the holidays shopping for gifts, attending parties, or otherwise sharing their social time with others may not know that the holidays are boom time for basic-cable TV movies.

Most of these are romances, many involving some little child bringing people together. There's even a subgenre of movies where someone is actually Santa or related to Santa. There are two — two! — movies in which Steve Guttenberg and Crystal Bernard play Santa and Mrs. Santa, and there is one where Tom Cavanagh (of Ed) is Santa. (I strongly recommend that you read the plot summary. That's some goooood art.)

But some of them are family films with ensemble casts learning warm-hearted lessons about the holidays. This usually involves a disenchanted or disconnected older person making connections with young, busy relatives who realize that they need to make time for Grandpa (or Dad, or the old lady who lives in the shoe) in order to truly appreciate Christmas.

Tell me the truth: If Robert DeNiro were switched with, say, James B. Sikking, and Drew Barrymore were switched with Monica Keena, and Kate Beckinsale were switched with Debra Messing, and Sam Rockwell were switched with Chad Lowe, wouldn't this look right at home on the ABC Family Channel's 25 Days Of Christmas?

The evidence, after the jump.