Are you bored of watching the same few Christmas movies every year and looking to watch something new this winter? I might recommend “Oh. What. Fun.” as the solution to this very specific problem.
Released on Wednesday, Dec. 3 on Amazon Prime, this Michael Showalter-directed film gives a spotlight to the unsung hero of Christmas – moms.
The movie even starts with family matriarch Claire Clauster (Michelle Pfieffer) doing a voiceover, annoyed about how so many Christmas movies get made about men – such as “Home Alone” and “Elf” – but none give the time to praise the efforts of the moms who stay at home, cooking, cleaning, taking care of the children and giving presents for everyone, while providing that Christmas joy, spirit and cheer.
The plot follows a whole host of storylines that surround the Clauster family as they all come together to celebrate Christmas in Houston. Claire’s ensuing crash out happens after her family forgets to bring her to a Christmas outing she organized and no one in her family nominates her for a holiday moms contest held by television host Zazzy Tims (Eva Longoria).
You have the oldest Clauster, Channing (Felicity Long), who is struggling to tell her mother how she feels about coming home for Christmas every year, and how she wants to create new Christmas traditions for her own family with husband Doug (Jason Schwartzman).
The middle child Taylor (Chloe Grace Moretz) brought her girlfriend to Houston to meet the rest of the Clausters, while also dating another woman on the side and rebuking Doug’s attempt to become friends with her.
The youngest Clauster, Sammy (Dominic Sessa), is down in the dumps after a breakup. That is, until he reconnects with the girl next door, Lizzie Wang-Wasserman (Havana Rose Liu).
Claire and Channing’s storylines are the most fleshed out. The relationship between mother and eldest daughter is certainly the most interesting storyline, with the most stakes involved. The arc that both women go on as they start to understand each other’s positions and the eventual compromise they reach is one of the best reasons to watch this movie. It tugs right at the heart and could hit home hard for anyone in this position.
When the focus shifts to the other Clauster family members is when it starts to fall apart. I didn’t particularly care what happened to the rest of them. I felt little to no chemistry between Sammy and Lizzie, and it feels like Taylor managed to fix things up with Doug too easily.
But I digress, because even if the stakes weren’t there, the acting was certainly on point. The actors certainly brought their A-game for this rather weak script. I wish they could have shown us the rest of Sessa’s moody rendition of “12 Days of Christmas” and Schwartzman brings a lovely energy to the bumbling and nervous Doug. Pfieffer always looks like she has a volcano bubbling under the surface of her calm exterior, and her southern belle accent is a nice touch.
Humor is had from the dry delivery of lines and how hopeless everyone is without Claire. When the Clauster family realizes she’s gone, everyone starts ripping into each other and Claire’s husband, Nick (Denis Leary) even calls the police to file a missing person report, because he doesn’t know what else to do.
The editing is nothing to write home about and even degrades the product onscreen with its incessant choppiness. There’s one scene where Doug and Taylor have a conversation, sitting right next to each other but the camera shifted between way too many angles. There is also a sense of cheapness from the lack of exciting scene transitions and boilerplate graphics.
Another reason that makes this movie worth watching is the music. You got needle drops from No Doubt, Modest Mouse and Fleet Foxes peppered throughout the movie, along with your Christmas standards. If there’s anything this movie leaves me with, it’s the desire to listen to No Doubt.
Overall, this is a movie that exists, and it seems perfectly alright with that. There’s nothing groundbreaking with its plot, cinematography and acting, but it is a perfectly nice Christmas film to watch with the family if you have nothing better to watch.
Rating: 2.5/5