Oh. What. Fun. evaluation: Shamelessly regifted Christmas comedy

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Director Michael Showalter has principally spent his post-State filmmaking profession within the realm of romantic comedies, shifting from his referential style critiques (The Baxter, his script for They Came Together) to movies that straightforwardly match into its tropes (The Idea Of You). Christmas motion pictures are related autos for cliché, which aficionados of the subgenre will let you know is all a part of the enjoyable—it’s as comforting as getting the identical Chocolate Orange in your stocking yr after yr after yr. Those who don’t subscribe to that concept will detest the sprawling tedium of Showalter’s vacation comedy Oh. What. Fun., and even those that do will discover their vacation spirit examined.

Though it takes the 105-minute movie a full 45 minutes for its premise to kick in, we’ll get to the purpose with a briskness that Oh. What. Fun. may solely want for from Santa. Claire (Michelle Pfeiffer), the long-suffering matriarch of the Clauster clan, will get left alone through the holidays when her household rushes off with out her—to plans that she made. This being the ultimate thankless straw, she flees her complacent household and rushes off into the night time to seek out the appreciation she deserves.

“Ah, kinda like Home Alone!” an inexpensive Christmas film aficionado might imagine. And sure, that surface-level similarity might be how this story made it to the hallowed carousel of the Amazon streaming service within the first place. But certainly one of many variations between this Home Alone plot level and its inspiration is that, except for there being little or no hazard concerned in leaving a full-grown Michelle Pfeiffer to her personal gadgets, Oh. What. Fun. takes place 35 years later in a world the place cell telephones make these sorts of misunderstandings out of date—particularly misunderstandings that occur down the road and never on worldwide flights. But as turns into obvious within the 45 minutes previous Oh. What. Fun.‘s plot, Showalter and co-writer Chandler Baker (whose short story this film is based on) are less concerned about telling a story and more concerned about reassuring their audience that this is a Christmas movie, and that everyone’s requirements must be lowered appropriately.

While it’s standard knowledge {that a} movie ought to keep away from reminding these watching it about extra established classics of its style—particularly immediately—Oh. What. Fun. flouts this and goes the wrong way. It all however encourages its streaming viewers to right away again out of the film they’ve by chance clicked on to be able to browse Amazon’s choice of extra established vacation fare. Namechecking or actually displaying clips of movies like Elf, Home Alone, A Christmas Story, Christmas Vacation, It’s A Wonderful Life, A Charlie Brown Christmas, and lots of extra, Oh. What. Fun. is so determined to keep away from being its personal film that it even pretends that kids like The Polar Express.

This film’s wandering eye, ogling the considerate presents of different movies whereas sitting there thumbing via its stack of impersonal present playing cards, is simply one other technique to kill time till the credit—just like the a number of dance sequences all however anxiously glancing on the runtime bar on the backside of the display. The remainder of the movie burns via the minutes a bit extra actually, placing its density of tropes and inventory characters to make use of.

See, Claire and her husband Nick (Denis Leary) have opened their house for the vacations to the households of their three kids: Channing (Felicity Jones), who brings alongside her dorky husband Doug (Jason Schwartzman) and their younger twins; Taylor (Chloë Grace Moretz), who brings vegan girlfriend-of-the-month Donna (Devery Jacobs); and Sammy (Dominic Sessa), newly dumped and alone. If the 20-year age distinction between a few of Claire’s kids bothers you, this would be the least of your complications for making an attempt to have interaction with this movie. Why, as an example, is that this snowy vacation movie set in Houston, a metropolis that has solely ever seen a white Christmas once in its historical past? The solely proof Oh. What. Fun. is Southern in any respect is Pfeiffer’s slight twang—no person else even bothers to check out an accent.

It’s not simply her household both. Naturally, Claire additionally has good neighbors whom she should sustain with. That brood is led by matriarch Jeanne Wang-Wasserman (Joan Chen) and consists of Havana Rose Liu, taking part in a shallow foil for Dominic Sessa to lust over. Finally, there’s the personification of Claire being taken as a right: excellently named TV host Zazzy Tims (Eva Longoria), who runs an annual Christmas mother contest. Everyone has their very own blurry little subplot across the stress of household gatherings, every of which paradoxically overpowers the ostensible level of the movie: Nobody respects poor ol’ mother.

The worst half is that that is truly an endearing matter for a vacation movie, buried underneath disagreeable cringe comedy, bone-tired scripting, and low cost formal hackwork (data scratch, frames freeze, voiceover drones, transitions look lifted from a PowerPoint vacation pack). This bargain-bin sheen extends to the performances, all strained grins and morning-show vitality. Nobody desires to be right here, they’re all simply punching the clock for his or her vacation shift. And but, past its determined gestures in the direction of higher motion pictures and its numerous regifted plot factors, Oh. What. Fun. does find yourself trying so much like a well-recognized Christmas fixture: a rubbish bag filled with torn wrapping paper.

Director: Michael Showalter
Writer: Chandler Baker, Michael Showalter
Starring: Michelle Pfeiffer, Felicity Jones, Chloë Grace Moretz, Denis Leary, Dominic Sessa, Jason Schwartzman, Eva Longoria, Joan Chen
Release Date: December 3, 2025 (Amazon)



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