Oh. What. Fun. film overview & movie abstract (2025)

“Oh. What. Fun” makes the error of exhibiting us clips of different, higher Christmas motion pictures proper firstly, an unlucky distinction for a movie that isn’t destined to turn out to be a vacation rewatch. 

Narrator and harried mom and grandmother Claire (Michelle Pfeiffer) explains that her shelf of basic movies (on VHS!), beloved by households as an annual custom, is all in regards to the dads on Christmas, overlooking the moms. She shares a glimpse of “Planes, Trains, and Automobiles” (famously a THANKSGIVING film, by the best way), stating that we spend the entire movie with Steve Martin, together with his character’s spouse onscreen for simply 89 seconds. Also, within the first couple of minutes, we see Claire shivering at a gasoline pump; we get it, her metaphorical tank is empty, and she or he doesn’t have a metaphorical coat to maintain her heat. She sees a mother with three quarreling children within the again seat and walks over to inform the kids to be nicer to their mom as a result of sometime she might be lifeless. “Scrooge is famously grumpy around the holidays, and I’m not entitled to one little outburst?” she asks us. 

Grumpiness is firstly of Scrooge’s story, nevertheless it takes up most of Claire’s. After the gasoline pump scene, we return a day to December 23, as Claire is preparing for her household to reach and watching her favourite tv present, an Oprah-esque sequence hosted by Zazzy Tims (Eva Longoria). Claire has been making ready for this yr’s Christmas since January 1. She tells herself it’s for her household, however in her coronary heart, what she needs most is for them to understand her sufficient to appoint her for a Zazzy’s annual Holiday Moms competitors. “It’s not that important to me,” Claire assures her husband, Nick (Denis Leary), then says possibly she’d higher textual content them about it another time. And we as soon as once more assume fondly of higher Christmas movies, the dysfunctional household sub-genre, as we keep in mind Denis Leary in “The Ref.” 

The household arrives: oldest daughter Channing (Felicity Jones), a novelist married to Doug (Jason Schwartzman), with their two kids, and center little one Taylor (Chloë Grace Moretz), a hairdresser who brings a brand new girlfriend yearly. This one is launched as DJ Sweatpants (Rafaella Karnaby). Then there may be the one son, the newborn of the household, Sammy (Dominic Sessa), who doesn’t fairly have a job and who has simply been dumped by his girlfriend, Mae-bell (Maude Apatow). 

Claire’s neighbor throughout the road is her frenemy, emphasis on enemy, Jeanne Wang-Wasserman (Joan Chen, glorious at being icier than the North Pole at midnight). She says issues like “Blessings!”  and “I see you took my advice and went sans inflatables this year.” Claire and Jeanne are in an intractable cage match battle of passive aggression, in order quickly as she leaves, Claire hisses to her household to get the inflatables and the pump.

We spend somewhat time for everybody to get on one another’s nerves simply sufficient to permit us to finish by resolving most, however not all, of the ancillary household conflicts. Here’s an unique concept: Grandpa Nick can not work out how one can put the children’ dollhouse collectively! As for the primary battle, right here’s an much more unique concept: Claire acquired tickets for a reside dance efficiency on Christmas Eve, and when the household is operating late, they soar in separate automobiles, and nobody remembers to carry Mom alongside. So, Claire jumps within the automotive and drives off with no plan, solely to finish up driving from her dwelling in Houston to the Zazzy present studio in California. 

Hallmark motion pictures don’t aspire to innovation, witty dialogue, or creativity; they’re near interchangeable and maybe finest watched whereas doing different issues. But individuals love them as a result of they know what works. We must root for the primary characters, now we have to care in regards to the stakes, and all classes realized, whether or not about belief, confidence, second probabilities, or the true that means of Christmas, must be classes that the characters earn. While “Oh. What. Fun” has a superb director, Michael Showalter, who additionally co-scripted, some good music, and prime performers, together with Danielle Brooks as a supply driver Claire meets on the street, and the exquisitely beautiful Havana Rose Liu, very interesting as Jeanne’s daughter, it retains undermining our sympathy with off-kilter stakes and inert efforts at humor. A swerve close to the top as girls complain in very crude phrases about how unappreciated they’re (endorsed by Andy Cohen!) provides a lot an excessive amount of credit score to somebody who has failed to acknowledge that her household doesn’t admire her as a result of she doesn’t pay attention or attempt to perceive what they might really discover significant.  

Fancy candles, shoplifting, getting excessive, and one-upping the neighbors will not be as humorous as this film thinks, and the resolutions of the Taylor/DJ and Sammy/Mae-bell relationships are particularly awkward. The final shot of Claire is telling. Maybe she’d be higher off watching a couple of Hallmark motion pictures to be taught that what makes household time significant is sharing recollections and making new ones with the individuals you like.