Michael Showalter’s holiday comedy “Oh. What. Fun.” opens with a stumper: Why aren’t there more Christmas movies about moms?
Think about it. There are lots of Christmas movies with moms. Christmas movies have moms a-plenty. They’re practically overflowing with moms. But how many of those moms are the protagonists? Not many, and the few exceptions, like “A Bad Moms Christmas,” are rarely included on lists of holiday classics. Except for “A Long Kiss Goodnight,” of course. Geena Davis didn’t just shoot at bad guys, she took a potshot at the whole holiday paradigm. And God bless her for it.
“Oh. What. Fun.” has fewer murders than “A Long Kiss Goodnight” — zero murders, to be specific — but we can’t hold that against it. Michael Showalter is a humane filmmaker who empathizes with every character who passes in front of his lens. But he’s also a sharp comedian, and he knows when those same sympathetic characters are being insufferable.
That’s a great starting point for this mom-centric holiday comedy, in which a matriarch’s seemingly boundless love for her family gets pushed to the breaking point by the selfishness of her brood. It’s not just her dilemma, it’s the director’s: How can long can you love these lovable jerks before the jerk part gets in the way?
Michelle Pfeiffer stars Claire, a mom with a big, big family who are all home for the holidays. There’s Channing (Felicity Jones), an author and a stressed-out mom herself, and her boring husband Doug (Jason Schwarztman). There’s also Taylor (Chloë Grace Moretz), who always brings home a new girlfriend, and her new girlfriend, DJ Sweatpants (Devery Jacobs). There’s also Sammy (Dominic Sessa), a lovelorn unemployed layabout, and don’t forget Claire’s husband Nick (Denis Leary) and a couple of grandkids. There are so many family members under one roof I get hives just thinking about it. If I had to cook for all these people I don’t think I’d ever stop screaming.
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Claire, however, has the patience of a saint. She’s been putting up with this crap for decades. She’s the backbone of this family and everyone loves her for it, sure, but after all these years everyone takes her contributions for granted. All Claire wanted for Christmas was for her kids to enter her name in a contest for moms — specifically, moms whose kids love them enough to enter them into a contest — and nobody frickin’ bothered.
When Claire’s whole family piles in their cars to go to a Christmas event, that Claire planned, for them, and they forget to bring Claire, that’s the last straw. She packs up and drives the hell off, to parts unknown. To their minimal credit, Claire’s family figures out how badly they screwed up fast, but the damage is done. Christmas is ruined, mostly because they feel so guilty about how they treated mom, but partly because nobody knows how to do Christmas without her. They just assumed she’d always be there.
What’s this, you say? The consequences of our actions? Yeah, and writer/director Showalter — adapting a story by Chandler Baker — knows how to handle that. Claire’s family aren’t bad people, they just got wrapped up in themselves and lost sight of how much she means to them, not just as a “mom” but as a human being. They failed her and they know it, and it hurts them. A lot. So Claire is entitled to be furious, and we’re furious along with her, but never so much that we hope she ditches her brood forever, because they aren’t despicable. They’re just lovable jerks. This’ll probably turn out okay after a few misadventures.
Michael Showalter assembled a grand ensemble cast for “Oh. What. Fun.” The characters are all distinct creations, they all feel real, they’re all funny, and they all pull their own weight in the story. Better still, all the tiny characters are a little odd and fascinating. The one mall cop who takes Claire’s emotional breakdown shoplifting too seriously. The motel clerk who always keeps a room empty in the futile hope that a celebrity will show up at their rat trap. There are no small parts in a Michael Showalter movie. Every actor is a star when they’re on camera.
But none of those stars shine as brightly as Michelle Pfeiffer. She’s a magical part of every movie, and “Oh. What. Fun.” is no exception. She has to carry the love, the angst, the generosity, the resentment, the humor and the drama on her shoulders. Michelle Pfeiffer is so dignified that even Claire’s many, many indignities command our respect. The biggest Christmas present we could ask for, as usual, is more Michelle Pfeiffer movies.
“Oh. What. Fun.” doesn’t shatter any molds. For all its big talk about how there aren’t enough Christmas movies about moms, the actual story here is well-trod territory, another one of the many films about women living lives of quiet desperation and finally getting pushed too far. And let’s be fair, it’s hardly “Jeanne Dielman,” although I’d love to see a Christmas-themed remake of that.
But “Oh. What. Fun.” is a welcome addition to the modern Christmas canon, a lovingly crafted little present of a movie. It’s just serious enough to be taken seriously and just schmaltzy enough to be Christmasy. But not quite murder-y enough to compete with “A Long Kiss Goodnight,” although what is?