In the long-standing tradition of the holidays, moms seem to be the ones put upon the most with the fewest cinematic escapades to show for it. Sure, there are plenty of bumbling father figures in holiday classics (“National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation,” “The Santa Clause,” “It’s a Wonderful Life,” “Bad Santa”), but Michael Showalter’s (“Wet Hot American Summer,” “The Big Sick”) latest film attempts to give the moms ample ground to run amok and play in the landscape of the slightly more anarchistic holiday feature fare.
Written by Showalter and Chandler Baker, the film follows Claire Clauster, played by Michelle Pfeiffer (“Batman Returns,” “The Fabulous Baker Boys”), a Texas housewife planning her yearly elaborate Christmas celebration with her husband Nick, played by Dennis Leary (“Rescue Me,” “Demolition Man”), and kids: her eldest Channing, played by Felicity Jones (“Rogue One: A Star Wars Story,” “The Theory of Everything”), and her husband Doug, played by Jason Schwartzman (“Rushmore,” “Scott Pilgrim vs. The World”), her middle daughter Taylor, played by Chloë Grace Moretz (“Kick-Ass,” “Hugo”), and her girlfriend Donna, played by Devery Jacobs (“Reservation Dogs,” “Echo”), and her youngest child Sammy, played by Dominic Sessa (“The Holdovers,” “Now You See Me: Now You Don’t”). After the stress of the holiday season gets to her and she is forgotten while the rest of the family travels to an activity she planned, she packs her bag and decides to drive cross country to California to crash the Holiday Mom contest run by daytime TV host Zazzy Tims, played by Eva Longoria (“Desperate Housewives,” “Dora and the Lost City of Gold”).
Dysfunctional families are a staple of holiday films from across the decades, and this is no different. The Clausters are quite a dysfunctional family, with arguments and emotions boiling over seemingly at a moment's notice. It’s hard to call these roles particularly complex, and they certainly aren’t demanding for a cast as experienced as this. Pfeiffer is coasting through her performance, and Leary lands squarely in “bumbling dad who falls to pieces without the wife” territory. Jones is the one doing the most engaging work, but that’s simply because her character is the one given the most complex arc in the film. Apart from that, everyone is just fine.
Showalter and Baker’s script cribs plenty of elements from other dysfunctional family comedies and holiday films, jamming them into a hodgepodge of material that manages to spike the holiday comedy just a bit. There’s plenty of shocking “I can’t believe they said that” humor as well as a lot of awkward cringe comedy. Schwartzman gets the brunt of it, playing the punching bag for the majority of the film, if not the entire time. When separated from the comedy though, the dramatic moments feel half-baked. It’s not that Claire’s frustrations aren’t justified, but rather that everyone in the family seems equally awful to each other. It definitely nails the “lying to save someone’s feelings” elements that are tackled in most holiday films, but that’s just it. These elements have been tackled in plenty of other holiday films over the years to greater effects.
What you’re left with then is a straight-to-streaming film that features plenty of amusing humor and decent performances alongside reheated holiday material. Any technical elements aren’t really worth mentioning, given the flatness of everything. While there are definitely films that manage to still look great despite their cheap streaming only status, this is not one of them. The sets certainly look nice and lived in, with a fun dichotomy between deeply decorated warm houses and the flat white style of Christmas decorations, it all gives off the air of simply being “good enough.”
“Oh. What. Fun.” is a fun enough Christmas romp, one that certainly pulls from its fair share of other holiday works. The cast is fun, and the humor is just spiked enough, but it's hard to call this a top-tier effort for anyone involved. Rather, this is a prime example of a film that’ll entertain the whole family without staking a claim in anyone’s memory alongside the true Christmas classics. 3/5
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