CANDY CANE LANE

Here's the decision. Eddie Murphy has always lived two careers — the raunchy R-rated one and the clean family one — and Candy Cane Lane lands squarely on the family side. It rewards patience with a spectacular, wildly inventive second half, and it wears its heart on its sleeve: strong pro-marriage, pro-family values, and a giant sign that twice proclaims, "Jesus Is the Reason for the Season."

The cost is small but real. There's some foul language — a few obscenities and, jarringly, one profane use of Jesus' name from the villain. The first half also drags. That's why this one is best enjoyed at home, where you can settle in, forgive the slow start, and let the payoff arrive.

So: if you've got older children and a couch, this is a genuine Christmas gift of a movie. Younger kids and viewers sensitive to language should sit this one out — but for most families, it's worth watching.

Chris Carver (Eddie Murphy) is a married father of three who gets laid off a week before Christmas. With time on his hands, his already-crazy obsession with holiday decorations runs wilder — especially now that his street's cutthroat decorating contest carries a $100,000 prize, and he's tired of losing to his neighbor.

Then Chris and his youngest daughter stumble on Kringle's, a wondrous Christmas store tucked under a freeway overpass, run by an elfish woman named Pepper (Jillian Bell). She sells him a towering mechanical tree whose ornaments match the carol "The Twelve Days of Christmas." But Chris never reads the fine print — and that's where the trouble begins.

Three stars, honestly earned in the back half. The opening is a low-energy slog, with Murphy oddly flat and the pacing sluggish enough to raise fears of one of his lazier misfires. Stick with it.

Once Chris starts piecing together how to save his family from Pepper's magic, Kelly Younger's script achieves liftoff worthy of Santa's sleigh. Murphy rises to the occasion, and he and the supporting cast share a great, playful energy. Director Reginald Hudlin stages one terrific action set piece after another, and the special effects — especially the porcelain figures coming to life — are genuinely excellent. It's a film whose second half is so imaginative it retroactively redeems its first.

Candy Cane Lane is refreshingly clear about what it values. It is very pro-family and pro-marriage, and it prizes kindness, forgiveness, and redemption. Chris's real arc isn't about winning a contest at all — it's about learning to be a kinder father, one who stops forcing his children to abandon their own dreams for the course he's mapped out for them. That softening of a controlling parent into a listening one is the movie's true prize.

And the film doesn't hide the source of the season. Twice, a large sign fills the screen with the words, "Jesus Is the Reason for the Season" — a rare and welcome declaration in a mainstream holiday comedy. Even the movie's running gag, where Christmas carols interrupt Chris just as he's about to swear, plays like the season itself keeping him honest.

The story's engine is a villain's curse and a family scrambling to break it before time runs out. Underneath the mayhem is the plainest of Christmas truths: that a father's love, and a home worth saving, matter more than any trophy. Scripture puts it simply — "Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me," Jesus said, and yet He came to us as a child in a family (Matthew 10:37). The reason for the season, indeed.

Candy Cane Lane asks a little patience of you and then pays it back with interest — a big, playful, effects-filled adventure that honors marriage, family, and the true reason for the season. Slow start, terrific finish, and a scattering of language to note for younger ears. For families with older kids, it's worth watching — settle in and let the second half work its magic.