Merry Christmas, Moms. You deserve it.
In Oh. What. Fun., Claire Clauster (Michelle Pfeiffer) is preparing for their annual family Christmas celebration. As she perfectly frosts her cookies and painstakingly wraps each present, Claire insists that her home is perfect for the return of their kids for the holidays. However, after Claire mistakenly gets left home alone while her family attends a special outing that she planned herself, she sets off on an adventure of self-discovery that will cause her family to experience their own special brand of Christmas chaos.
Directed by Michael Showalter, Oh. What. Fun. is a charmingly energetic holiday film that just might end up on your ‘Christmas movie’ rotation. While it’s not an ‘instant classic’, there is more than enough here to make you fa-la-laugh as it embraces its throwback feel for holiday nostalgia. Borrowing tropes from numerous holiday classics, Fun still feels entirely new and fresh, bringing a delightful dose of Christmas chaos onto the small screen. This is a film that both feels like a cup of warm cocoa while also adding a shot of whiskey to it.
And, it’s worth noting that Fun also boasts an absolutely stand-out cast of Hollywood elite. Featuring light-hearted performances by Felicity Jones, Chloë Grace Moretz, Dominic Sessa, Maude Apatow, Jason Schwartzman, Eva Longoriaand Denis Leary, the film is more than stacked with top tier talent. But even though she’s surrounded by a positively stellar supporting cast, it’s Pfeiffer’s star that shines most brightly.
What Fun does really well is allow Pfeiffer to play bold comedy. It’s been a while since we’ve seen the Hollywood icon step into a role that requires frantic energy but she brings a holiday fury to the role that makes it delightfully mischievous. (Just wait for the scene at the shopping mall to understand what I’m talking about.) She looks genuinely pleased playing the oft-ignored and increasingly bitter Claire, stepping into the silliness with enthusiasm. Trying to navigate her family pitfalls, Pfeiffer is fun and furious to watch onscreen.
Even so, what’s most surprising about Fun is the fact that highlights a grievous wrong. When we consider the great holiday classics, what we discover is that, more often than not, they tell the story of the boys. From National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation to Home Alone, most holiday films not made by Hallmark follow male protagonists. (It’s worth noting that Leary’s own memorable Christmas film, The Ref, even receives a shout-out.)
But Oh. What. Fun. wants to change that.
As such, Fun is very much a celebration of mothers and the incredible effort that they put into making the holidays special. Claire claims Christmas as her own, partially out of self-fulfillment but also out of the pride that she gets in seeing her family enjoy the ‘perfect’ holiday. Yes, her obsessiveness can be abrasive to her family members but the hard work that she puts in to creating memorable food and décor also goes largely unnoticed. And their inability to take care of her needs leaves scars, especially when the children start looking at making some changes of their own. Then, when Claire truly feels forgotten, she decides to take matters into her own hands.
In doing so, Fun highlights the simple ways that the women in our lives can feel unsupported at times when family get-togethers are the central draw. Fun isn’t so much of a ‘message’ movie as it is a reminder that our mothers are often the ones who truly make holidays magic.
And they deserve to be thanked in the process.
In this way, Oh. What. Fun. carves out its own space in the holiday film canon. Yes, at times, it’s forgettable but, somehow, that’s also what makes it memorable. This is exactly the sort of film that mom can throw on while she’s wrapping gifts on Christmas Eve, with a glass of wine in her hand. But it’s also a reminder that maybe it’s worth doing some of the work around the house this holiday season to help her out as well.
Oh. What. Fun is available to stream exclusively on Prime Video.
