By Dave Montalbano

AdventuresOfCinemaDave.com

Set in upper bourgeois New Jersey, The Oranges focuses on the Walling and Ostroff families. It’s narrated by the depressing Vanessa Walling (Alia Shawkat), who explains how she worked hard in college only to end up in her parents’ home. David (Hugh Laurie) and Paige Walling (Catherine Keener) are financially- stable people, who are actively involved in their community.

As part of the neighborhood ritual, David jogs with Terry Ostroff (Oliver Platt) three times a week. Careerdriven Carol Ostroff (Allison Janney) is concerned about her party girl daughter Nina (Leighton Meester), who used to be Vanessa’s BFF(Best Friend Forever).

In their high school days, Nina seduced a boy that Vanessa was infatuated with. The young women’s relationship is further strained when Nina seduces Vanessa’s father, David Ostroff, on Thanksgiving Day.

The Oranges details how much life can happen between Thanksgiving holidays until Christmas time. Based on the scenery, one expects a dramatic film dealing with the holiday season, much like Christmas in Connecticut or Miracle on 34th Street.

Unlike the warmth one felt from actors like Maureen O’Hara, Donna Reed and Edmund Gwen in the old days, the characters who inhabit The Oranges are hollow individuals. This is not to say that Laurie, Janney, Platt and Keener do not give good performances; it is that writers Ian Helfer and Jay Reiss wrote such shallow characters.

When the climatic scenes arrive, they feel flat and, at times, repetitious. It is only the comic timing between Keener, Platt, Janney and Laurie that force a few welltimed chuckles. That is too bad, because the ending actually has something important to say about family, friendship and the passage of time.