Oh. What. Fun. (2025) Review!!

Synopsis – Centers on Claire, who plans a special Christmas but is forgotten by her family. When they realize she’s missing, their holiday is at risk until she returns to give them the celebration they deserve.

My Take – It is quite well know that women are overworked during festivities. They spend hours in the kitchen, perfecting the holiday dishes, while the men and the youngsters spend their time in leisure.

While last week’s Prime Video release emphasized that it was finally putting moms at the center of a Christmas flick instead of treating them like background decorations and was going to take a quiet, grounded look at the pressures behind family celebrations.

However, despite the trusted hand of writer-director Michael Showalter (The Big Sick, Wet Hot American Summer, The Idea of You), on the steering wheel, the resulting film is not just generic and fails to live up to its unique premise, it relies completely on the performances from the ensemble cast led by the always magnificent Michelle Pfeiffer to sail through its woefully bland script co-written by Chandler Baker (on whose short story the feature is based).

While it offers relatable moments of frustration, humor, and reflection, the story has is marred with uneven pacing and subplots, that show up and disappear without any acknowledgment. This could’ve been an incisive and compelling examination of a mother’s role in Christmas, but it’s little more than a mean-spirited, rarely funny story about a family that never really comes together for the holidays.

And by the time its predictable reconciliation arrives, the film feels less like a fully realized exploration of motherhood and more like watchable but under-cooked old school Christmas special. It may have set out to give a mother a chance to be the lovable, hapless hero of a holiday film, but will end up appealing only to select audience.

The story follows Claire (Michelle Pfeiffer), a mom on the edge at Christmas time. Though husband, Nick (Denis Leary), is supportive without being helpful, and her grown kids, Channing (Felicity Jones), Taylor (Chloë Grace Moretz) & Sammy (Dominic Sessa), don’t appreciate her efforts, Claire operates as a one woman show, managing this precious time with her family and trying to keep it all cozy and happy and fun through constant, thankless labor like cooking, cleaning, wrapping, planning.

And all she wants in return is to be nominated as holiday mom of the year at her favorite television show, The Zazzy Tims’ Show, hosted by Zazzy Tims (Eva Longoria).

But her breaking point really comes when she realizes everyone, from Claire, her mild-mannered husband, Doug (Jason Schwartzman) and their twins, Lucy (Rafaella Karnaby) and Ben (Drake Shehan) to Nick, Sammy, Taylor and her new girlfriend, DJ Sweat Pants aka Donna (Devery Jacobs), has gone to an event that she planned without her, she takes off from her suburban prison and doesn’t tell anyone. As for once, she’s decided to go do something for herself.

Promising though it may seem, what follows that does very little with its setup and terrific cast opting instead for the most generic version of itself. Director Michael Showalter co-wrote the script with the short story’s author, Chandler Baker and is committed to keeping the proceedings light and breezy, but the effect is a film that seems almost embarrassed to commit to its own silly premise, rushing through everything instead of letting us enjoy this cast.

Everyone gets assigned one tidy problem or flaw and no one has any sort of lived-in familial chemistry with one another. Scattered subplots and comedic diversions dilute the story, while the resolution resolves conflict too neatly. Scenes that could have provided deeper insight often feel structured to meet predictable beats rather than emerging naturally from character development.

The film is most convincing when cataloguing Claire’s grievances like the invisible emotional labor, the unending expectations, and the thankless rituals. Much of it will ring painfully true for overburdened parents, though the unrelenting barrage of complaints eventually tilts from relatable toward bleak. More problematically, the film seldom articulates what Claire gains from these relationships or why these traditions matter, as the family themselves don’t seem particularly invested in the festivities she exhausts herself over.

The biggest misstep of the story is what’s presumably meant to be the emotional heart of the film, which is Claire’s relationship with her eldest daughter Channing. This dynamic has the most screen time devoted to it, but it’s so underdeveloped that it’s easily resolved in a handful of therapy-speak lines that don’t even make sense for the characters. Making the film feel like it was made with the purpose of getting overburdened parents to nod furiously in agreement, and I imagine it’ll achieve that goal easily.

Performance wise, Michelle Pfeiffer carries the whole film with a performance that feels lived-in, tired, funny, and painfully real. Even when the surrounding plot falters, her performance gives the story weight, ensuring that viewers remain engaged with her journey. Denis Leary portrays Nick with a weary, conflicted energy, though the script limits the character’s depth. Felicity Jones, Chloë Grace Moretz, and Dominic Sessa each bring sincerity to their roles as the children.

Jason Schwartzman and Havana Rose Liu aren’t given much to do. In small roles, Danielle Brooks, Joan Chen, Maude Apatow, and Eva Longoria are decent enough. On the whole, ‘Oh. What. Fun.‘ is a forgettable holiday film that falls short of being the promised mom-centric rousing crowd-pleaser.