“Oh. What. Fun.” Review
Director: Michael Showalter Screenwriter: Chandler Baker, Michael Showalter Cast: Michelle Pfeiffer, Felicity Jones, Chloë Grace Moretz, Denis Leary, Dominic Sessa, Jason Schwartzman, Eva Longoria, Joan Chen Distributor: Amazon MGM Studios Running Time: 108 min. MPAA: PG-13
Michael Showalter’s Christmas comedy is touted as a holiday treat for moms, but only a particular type of mom. This is not for the moms struggling with too much on their plates, but for the middle-aged suburbanites with the blandest of personalities and beige-est of houses. “Where is MY film?” she asks bitterly, between sips of wine and setting up too many Christmas decorations in her decadent home. Well, your time has come. Yes, Virginia, you can speak to the manager.
Michelle Pfeiffer plays Claire Clauster as a woman who feels like she’s being taken for granted. Sure, her entire family still assembles at her spacious home every Christmas, and her husband, Nick (Denis Leary), tries to help with putting together the gifts for the grandkids. Sure, her household is alive with traditions, and her family still comes together despite all the problems they have amid the holidays. Yet, Claire still feels devalued for the one thing she wanted this Christmas: to be nominated for a talk show’s best mom competition by her family. She doesn’t ask her children to appoint her directly because she feels that doing so would violate some rule. It’s a first-world problem that feels the most manufactured.
There’s a better film somewhere in this murky mess, considering Claire’s opening bit features her chewing out some kids haranging their mother and ranting about how few Christmas movies have women as the heroes. Somewhere within that rant is a point to be made about how moms are devalued in these many holiday classics, but this is not the film to make some amusing jab. This picture falls back on so many holiday cliches, from Claire’s competitive nature with Christmas decorations to Nick’s inability to put together a dollhouse. This is not a mom who wants to challenge convention; she just wants a place at the table of all the tired Christmas movie scenarios that have grown as stale as year-old fruitcake. Better late than never, I suppose.
Claire’s family is framed to be so busy that they forget to bring her to the Christmas dance show they all attend (think Home Alone, with the lowest stakes). The busywork of the visiting kids and grandkids is nothing all that engrossing either. Chloë Grace Moretz and Devery Jacobs play a couple who are uncertain about their relationship, with Moretz being more bi than lesbian. Dominic Sessa plays a heartbroken son who learns to get over his inconsistent ex for a long-time crush played by Havana Rose Liu. Felicity Jones and Jason Schwartzman play a married couple with kids who spend more time tip-toeing around everybody else than adding anything interesting to the holiday melodrama or undercooked comedy. The film can’t balance everything, leaving many of these arcs so underdeveloped that the abrupt conclusions carry little heart and few laughs.
Maybe the funniest thing Claire does is steal from a mall store because she doesn’t want to deal with the Christmas lines. Remember, you’re supposed to be rooting for her to win a mom-of-the-year contest. Where the film might’ve found a more attainable dose of catharsis is when Claire goes AWOL from her family, spending Christmas with the eccentric trucker Danielle Brooks. They had the potential for Claire’s very own version of Planes, Trains, and Automobiles story, but, much like everything else in this movie, it never fully arrives at something clever. Claire merely staggers around for the final act of this film amid other women who rant about how lesser they feel while getting drunk. Again, the potential is there: an entire film in which fleeing women on Christmas bitch about their families and partners could lead to some hilarious and thoughtful conversations. That level of insightful comedy, however, requires more than the lackluster, low-stakes characters presented here. Claire’s ultimate meeting with her favorite TV celeb, played by Eva Longoria, packs little punch for moms who wish they could complain about the most minor of aggravations.
Oh. What. Fun. is not fun enough to even make a witty rip on that title. It’s a movie that completely squanders a chance to make a point about moms who are forgotten during the holidays, reducing their agency to a me-time vacation. Ralphie wanted a BB gun for Christmas, Jamie a Turbo Man doll, and Claire wants to be on TV and go on a solo vacation. I’m sure there’s some box ticked for the upper-middle-class mom in such a film, but the wish fulfillment is so hollow amid tedious Christmas gags that feel like the most watered-down retreat of National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation. Claire is right; moms deserve their own Christmas movie, one far better than this one.
