Released: 3rd December
Seen: 13th December
Oh. What. Fun. opens with a voiceover by the main character lamenting that the history of Christmas movies ignores the hard work of the mother and to be fair, it’s got a pretty good point. For all the work that they do around the Holidays, there are more films about husbands and kids desperately trying to make it home than there are about mums in general. Any film about Christmas will focus on the husband or eldest son, relegating the mother to a supporting role. This is emblematic of a general problem in Hollywood that not only lacks a lot of good roles for women but is especially bad for women over the age of 40. With an opening like that, one would hope that maybe Oh. What. Fun. might have something about it that could really show off what a good female role would look like… instead it makes me consider cancelling Christmas.
Oh. What. Fun. introduces us to the Clauster family, in particular Claire (Michelle Pfeiffer) the put-upon mother, her husband Nick (Denis Leary) and their three kids, Channing (Felicity Jones), Taylor (Chloë Grace Moretz) and Sammy (Dominic Sessa). Since it’s Christmas, the Clausters are once again under the same roof along with any extended family that’s been added since last year (like Channing’s husband and children or Taylor’s current girlfriend who all have names but it doesn’t matter). Things are going fine enough, Claire is being run ragged trying to keep the Christmas spirit alive and even gets everyone tickets to a dance show but due to shenanigans, everyone leaves for the show without her. This is apparently the last straw and Claire gets in her car, a car she didn’t think to drive to the concert to catch up with everyone, and drives off to somewhere else to… uh… do something that’ll totally show her family how much they miss her, even though it means putting herself through hell.
Oh. What. Fun. seems to be trying its best to borrow from another holiday classic, Home Alone. While it might not have the elaborate traps which made that film iconic, it does have the basic setup of a large family getting very distracted and leaving one member of their flock alone which is not the worst setup in the world… except in Home Alone the family went to Paris which is roughly an eight hour flight away and in this film they went about 20 minutes into town, you can see how those are very different and how one is inherently less dramatic. That’s kind of the core problem that Oh. What. Fun. keeps slamming into, it’s just not willing to go very far, and it ends up just feeling kind of dull and lifeless. The opening scenes don’t really do much to set Claire up as disastrously overworked; she’s just kind of the normal amount of busy anyone is when hosting family for Christmas. The big “We forgot mum” scene isn’t big or funny; indeed, it’s intercut with Claire getting into her own car, so it’s hard not to go “Why aren’t you following them right now?”. Even the big climax isn’t that big, it’s messy and unfocused like the rest of the movie.
You can almost see little moments where Oh. What. Fun. has some kind of idea what to do, but it would prefer to just abandon those instead of actually doing something fun with them. They try to play up how Claire has a weird problem with her neighbour, which could be amusing; entire films have been based on “I want to do Christmas better than my neighbour” but that would imply commitment. Instead, we get one mild, slightly bitchy conversation about cookies and one not-funny shopping scene, and that’s it, the neighbour character may as well not exist because she does nothing for the plot at all. They try to set up this big awards show for mums on a daytime TV show hosted by Zazzie Tims (Eva Longoria) and sure, it’s part of the climax, but there’s no drama or comedy pulled from this moment. There’s no energy to it at all, every element that involves this show feels completely lifeless. There’s no part of those scenes that feels like a real show, nor does it give the main character any catharsis.
What’s perhaps most upsetting about how lifeless Oh. What. Fun. ends up being is that they have the legendary Michelle Pfeiffer as a lead, a woman who can do snarky, wicked comedy better than most people, and they give her absolutely nothing to work with. There isn’t a single quotable line or funny sequence where she gets to show off, they just make one of the most gorgeous women in the world look kinda frumpy and have her talk about how you need to thank your mom for doing everything for you. Sure, great message, important even, but could ya maybe also try telling a fucking joke? Have her have one emotion outside of exhaustion? Let her yell at someone and explode, give her a chance to cut her family down to size, make them realise how much they’ve been taking advantage of her? No? No, we’re just gonna watch her do stupid shit that only hurts herself and isn’t funny? Cool, cool, cool, cool.
Oh. What. Fun. is absolutely no fun whatsoever. It wants so hard to be a great mum Christmas movie, to make up for that lack of Christmas movie mums that it mentioned at the start but it doesn’t offer anything better for the mums in question. This isn’t wish fulfilment, it’s just watching a broken woman finally crack, which is not what anyone wants to see. It doesn’t go anywhere near far enough in terms of concept or comedy to justify existing. Mothers deserve better than what this film has to offer them.
Movie Meister Reviews 