It’s a Christmas Miracle. ‘Oh. What. Fun.’ Is Actually Fun

The primary conceit of Oh. What. Fun., that there are no Christmas movies about moms, is Diane Keaton erasure. But co-writer and director Michael Showalter has created a Christmas movie that captures the same type of comedy without the manufactured sentimentality of a dying matriarch (The Family Stone), or the impending dissolution of a marriage (Love The Coopers).

Oh. What. Fun. has an overpowered cast that’s punching well below their weight classes. But everyone needs to get paid, and everyone deserves to have some lighthearted fun around the holidays, even Denis Leary. It can’t be The Ref every year, folks.

Michelle Pfeiffer plays the underappreciated Texas mom Claire. The only thing she wants for Christmas is for her adult children to nominate her for the annual Holiday Mom Contest that her favorite talk show host (Eva Longoria) is running. Her husband, Nick (Leary), is oblivious and the kids, Channing (Felicity Jones), Sammy (The Holdovers star, Dominic Sessa), and Taylor (Chloë Grace Moretz) are all too caught up with their own emotional baggage and blow off all of her messages about nominating her.

Claire is also involved in a silent war of respectability with the family across the street. They’re perfectly coiffed, wear a lot of matching neutrals, sing Christmas carols in perfect harmony, and have tastefully decorated for the holidays with white lights and manicured greenery. The matriarch, Twin Peaks’ Joan Chen, is not shy about letting Claire know she finds everything about her family tacky and distasteful every chance she gets. Claire already feels like she’s not enough and the rivalry with the neighbors makes her feel even worse about herself as Christmas draws near.

When the kids and their significant others (Jason Schwartzman and Devery Jacobs) arrive home for the holidays, the story takes on a Home Alone energy - too many people in too small a space with too many plans and too much relationship drama. It’s a montage of everyone enjoying themselves except for Claire, who runs from room to room completing tasks and chores to make merry the household for everyone else.

It’s a tale as old as Christmas itself. Mom does all of the invisible labor to keep the house running and make sure everyone has what they need for Christmas, while her needs are ignored. Imagine ignoring Michelle Pfeiffer. Even in this conservative, suburban mom costume, she is still Michelle freaking Pfeiffer, carrying a smidge of Catwoman around in her heart. Underestimate her at your peril.

Claire runs out of f***s to give and decides to drive herself to L.A. for the Holiday Mom Contest that she was not entered in. There’s a road trip that includes a Big Lebowski-esque conversation at a diner, sharing a hotel room with a random delivery driver (Danielle Brooks), and her car getting towed. When she gets to L.A., a series of entirely improbable events lead to her being on television: she sneaks onto the lot (impossible), gets into the studio (impossible), where they’re broadcasting a talk show LIVE on Christmas Day (ridiculous, would never happen). She ends up backstage (how?) and then, as part of the crowd of mothers who were entered into the contest, makes her way onto the stage where her ridiculous Cabbage Patching gets her on camera, which is how her family back in Texas finally figures out where she is. Idiots. Really, can you just try listening to your mother with even one ear? How did you not know that’s where she was.

‘Tis the season for improbability, and that continues when the entire family gets same-day plane tickets, on Christmas Day, to fly to L.A. to get to Claire and apologize.

It’s a pretty standard Christmas movie, so it has notes to hit. There’s a minor romantic subplot, a shopping mall scene, problems putting together children’s toys, a kitchen disaster, and Denis Leary having an emotional breakdown when he realizes he’s entirely unprepared and incapable of doing everything his wife did to make the holiday work.

In case you didn’t get the message from the subtext, the voiceover, Michelle Pfeiffer’s sad face, or her angry face, there’s an extended scene between Claire and Eva Longoria’s Zazzy Tims (a name that will haunt me forever) about how even powerful talk show hosts get stuck doing all the work in their own homes without proper gratitude or recompense.

It’s an honest message that will resonate with many women who are spending their free time this month wrapping presents, making shopping lists, baking cookies, volunteering at school events, and organizing multi-generational holiday celebrations. Claire tells the world that above anything else, moms want to hear three words during the holiday season. They’re not “I love you.” They’re “Can I help?” Yes, but … I’m side-eyeing any husbands and adult children who ask if they can help instead of just helping during the holidays. I mean, any time, but especially during the holidays. It is the 21st century. Housekeeping and holidays are not “women’s work.” And if you make them women’s work, you’d better be treating the women in your life right, or she’s going to run off to L.A. and embarrass you on national television. And you’ll deserve it.

It’s a little heavy-handed, and I think Showalter needs to give his mom a call to work out some issues. But overall, Oh. What. Fun. is the sort of upbeat holiday comedy that you can throw on after all of the presents have been opened, and everyone is dozing on the sofa with a beverage of choice while mom prepares Christmas Day dinner.

JUST KIDDING. Someone else do the cooking this year.

Oh. What. Fun. is streaming on Prime.