“Come to think of it, where are the holiday movies about moms?” I can list a dozen centred on men without even thinking — Christmas Vacation, It’s a Wonderful Life, The Santa Clause, Home Alone, Elf… even Planes, Trains and Automobiles, where Steve Martin becomes a holiday hero simply for trying to get home. Meanwhile, his wife — the one actually doing the work of Christmas, keeping the household running, making sure everyone is fed and loved — gets barely a minute of screen time. Where’s her movie? Where’s the story about the real heroes of the holidays: moms?”

When the adaptation of Chandler Baker’s short story Oh. What. Fun. was announced, I was easily one of the most excited people, and when the trailer was finally released, I started counting down the days until December 3. Was I finally getting the new Christmas comedy I’d been waiting for? My new comfort Christmas movie? You know, the one that fits any moment during the holidays: baking mornings, puzzle afternoons, a movie to nap to, the one you watch with a hot chocolate in hand after being outside all day. The ultimate holiday movie. But alas. I really wanted to love Oh. What. Fun., but I found myself rather disappointed by this new Christmas movie that, in reality, isn’t oh-so-fun.

The cast is undeniably fantastic: Michelle Pfeiffer, Denis Leary, Felicity Jones, Chloë Grace Moretz, Dominic Sessa, Jason Schwartzman, Eva Longoria, Joan Chen, Havana Rose Liu. No notes. Pfeiffer, especially, is a delight, as usual. She brings so much warmth and heart to Claire, the clumsy, big-hearted matriarch who wants just one thing for herself this holiday season: to be part of the Zazzy Tims Holiday Moms Contest. From the start, we see her intense enthusiasm for Christmas and her endearing rivalry with her neighbour Jeanne (Chen), you know, that classic dynamic (that feels more cliché than anything else) between two moms who call each other friends but are quietly, constantly competing?

As Christmas approaches, Claire’s kids are coming home to celebrate the holidays like they do every year: Channing (Jones), the eldest daughter with predictable mommy issues (who’s accompanied by her husband and their twins), Taylor (Moretz), the chaotic gay middle child, and Sammy (Sessa), the baby of the family who will always be mommy’s favourite, no matter how grown he is.

When Channing casually announces that next year they might not come home, it hits Claire harder than she lets on. And honestly, who can blame her? We all joke about moms “acting crazy” during the holidays, but deep down, the only thing they want is to give us the best time, to make sure we have everything we need, to create memories we’ll carry forever. They do everything, ask for almost nothing, and in this movie, she’s asking for one little thing, and yet they still can’t give her that.

What the movie captures particularly well is how everything begins to fall apart the moment Claire stops holding it all together (mothers truly are the superstars of the holidays and they deserve more credit). She spends every waking minute cooking, planning, cleaning, and carefully shaping the holiday experience, only for everyone else to complain the second something isn’t perfect. Meanwhile, her husband (Leary) can’t even manage one simple task — building a silly little dream house — and ends up calling random strangers for help, only to get it wrong anyway. Pfeiffer plays all of this with such sincerity that it’s impossible not to empathize with Claire; she isn’t just the protagonist, she’s the emotional backbone of the movie.

But the problem with Oh. What. Fun. is that it never quite finds the right balance between heart and comedy. The pacing is uneven: the introduction drags, while the chaotic trip to Burbank is over almost as soon as it begins, and several scenes, like the Danielle Brooks bit or the mall escapade, feel unnecessary, adding little to the story . The humour swings between genuinely funny and awkward, leaving you unsure whether the jokes are landing the way the movie thinks they are.

That imbalance is what makes the movie so frustrating, because the potential is clearly there. A Christmas movie centred on a mother, full of warmth, chaos, and a stellar cast, should have been an easy holiday favourite. Instead, the story struggles to find the comforting, heartfelt rhythm it keeps reaching for leaving you with the sense of a movie that almost works, but never fully commits, at least not in the way I hoped it would.

Oh. What. Fun. isn’t the new classic I wanted it to be. It’s sweet in moments, messy in others, and ultimately just fine, a holiday movie that gestures toward celebrating moms, without fully giving them the movie they deserve. Definitely missed opportunity.

Grade: C

Oscar Prospects:
Likely: None
Should be Considered: None

Where to Watch: Prime Video