''When you go home for the holidays, it's almost like you're getting a report card on your life,'' says writer-director Preston A. Whitmore II. Which might be bad for Quentin (Idris Elba), a struggling musician returning to the nest for the first time in four years. He finds a stranger (Delroy Lindo) living with his divorced mother (Loretta Devine), the matriarch of a complicated family rife with sibling rivalry. Whitmore drew upon his own upbringing for the story. ''My family hasn't seen it yet, so I am a little nervous,'' he says. Let's see if he's invited home this Christmas.

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