‘Oh. What. Fun.’ Movie Review: Michelle Pfeiffer Is A Gift In Cozy But Misguided Christmas Comedy
Photo from Amazon MGM Studios
From Jeremy Kibler
Michelle Pfeiffer—the ultimate “girl for all seasons”—headlining an ensemble Christmas comedy? Yes, please. Oh. What. Fun. almost plays like a mom-centric spin on Home Alone if Kate McCallister was the one forgotten about and left home alone without a head count (minus all of the booby-trapping robber hijinks). Directed by Michael Showalter (Spoiler Alert, The Idea of You), the film starts off bright until not knowing where it wants to take things besides predictable, earnest sentimentality. With such an ensemble, Showalter has a lot of traffic to direct, and it’s in the fly-on-the-wall observations of certain family dynamics where Oh. What. Fun. gets very close to being the cozy, festive dramedy it wants to be. It feels a couple drafts away from being punchier, smarter, and more focused.
Forever one of this writer’s personal favorite on-screen actors, Michelle Pfeiffer is, once again, a gift, even when playing Claire, a self-pitying Houston mom who feels undervalued and taken for granted. She’s basically Mrs. Claus, making sure the holiday goes perfectly as she and her affable husband Nick (Denis Leary) host Christmas every year for their kids in their wonderfully decorated home. Of their three adult children, Channing (Felicity Jones) is the eldest, a stressed-out author who’s also a wife to boring husband Doug (Jason Schwartzman) and a mother of two; Taylor (Chloë Grace Moretz) is in the middle, always bringing home a new girlfriend, this time it being Donna/DJ Sweatpants (Devery Jacobs); and Sammy (Dominic Sessa) is the currently unemployed baby of the family, living in Portland and recently dumped by his girlfriend (Maude Apatow) before leaving for home. Somehow, while dropping off a last-minute gift to her competitive neighbor (Joan Chen), Claire is forgotten about, while her family drives off to the holiday spectacular dance show — a family event that Claire planned herself. It’s one thing that nobody in the family signed Claire up for a mom contest on her favorite daytime show (hosted by an Oprah-like Eva Longoria), but now this? What’s a mom to do? Well, she gets in her SUV and drives, while her family isn’t sure what to do without her.
Adapted by Showalter and Chandler Baker from Baker’s short story, Oh. What. Fun. begins with a dry, cynical sense of humor. In sardonic voice-over narration, Claire quickly calls out the utter lack of holiday movies centered around moms, the true heroes (that’s right, “holiday movies,” so the Thanksgiving-set classic Planes, Trains and Automobiles does count). One of the movies in the stack is also The Ref, an underrated coal-black comedy, also set around Christmas and co-starring Denis Leary, that you kind of wish you were watching instead.
Then wacky shoplifting hijinks ensue. Needless family conflicts pile up, based solely on a classic case of misunderstandings. Claire’s solo adventure never really gets anywhere memorable, not even a shared motel room with a delivery driver (played by the always-charismatic but woefully underused Danielle Brooks). Youngest sibling Sammy does get a romantic subplot, which is only worthwhile because it involves the effortlessly charming Havana Rose Liu, a neighbor who has noticed him all along. Once Claire gets to Burbank, the film gets too contrived for its good. It’s already a leap in believability that Claire has driven 10 hours in a quickly purchased jalopy without much sleep, but no sooner have her feet touched the pavement does she easily get past security and walk into the back door on a studio lot, no questions asked. Meanwhile, her family happens to be watching all of this transpire on the very exact TV show the matriarch wanted them all to sign her up for in the first place.
The biggest selling point for Oh. What Fun. is the starry cast. Pfeiffer thankfully brings more humanity and pathos to Claire than how she might have read on the page, sometimes coming across as a perfection-striving martyr. Also, any rare chance to see Pfeiffer getting a little loose is a treat. Felicity Jones, as miscast as she might be playing the product of Pfeiffer and Leary, finally hits the nail on the head as Channing, who’s happy with her own life but wants to start her own family traditions. The rest of the cast does the most it can when Pfeiffer is the star, including Chloë Grace Moretz, who’s probably the most convincing casting choice as the middle child (she and her on-screen mom were already related in Tim Burton’s Dark Shadows) and amuses in her snippy dynamic with Jason Schwartzman, and Dominic Sessa, who was such natural find in The Holdovers and finds a few endearing notes as the slacker of the family.
As a vehicle for Michelle Pfeiffer, Oh. What. Fun. is as pleasant and warm as a fisherman sweater, and the star looks as luminous as ever. The soundtrack also gets one in the holiday spirit, opening with Brenda Lee’s “Christmas Will Be Just Another Lonely Day” and continuing with Christmas classic covers by Gwen Stefani, Fiona Apple, and St. Vincent, just to name a few. As a tinsel-strewn ode to underappreciated, overlooked mothers everywhere, it means well but loses its way in clunky, sitcommy fashion.
Rating: 2.5/5
Oh. What. Fun. is currently streaming on Prime Video.
