Oh. What. Fun. Movie Review (2025)

A low-energy movie about a mother who escapes her family because she feels unappreciated at the holidays, Oh. What. Fun. gets mildly better in the second half.

Tis the season for holiday movies. I came across this one through an advertisement on Facebook and thought I’d take a shot. The cast is impressive and the storyline seemed moderately unique, so it had to be good, right?

Oh. What. Fun. is about the Clauster family at Christmastime. Mother, Claire, does everything from wrapping the presents to baking the cinnamon rolls. All she wants for Christmas is for her adult kids to send in a “mom recognition” application for her to her favorite show. When her dialed-out husband, older daughter Channing (with husband and two kids), younger daughter Taylor (with her girlfriend of the month), and younger son Sammy gather together and ultimately forget Claire during a drive to a show she’d bought tickets for, she ditches the family and goes on the road.

I went into this “comedy” prepared to like it, but I was disappointed. The first half of the movie is very rough. The characters are cardboard cutouts, none of the humor lands, it feels charmless, and it’s like someone took a paintbrush and swept over any energy that might be emitted from the screen.

But, about halfway into the film, a small shift happens. Danielle Brooks, in a bit part, shows up with a little light. Her character is warm and advisory for just a minute, until the script goes and ruins it with the character’s sudden neediness.

Things do get a little better from here, though, with the introduction of new people and a fun scene with a bunch of moms in Eva Longoria’s character’s office. Any mom who has moments of feeling unappreciated will get a chuckle out of their complaints.

I am left wondering why Felicity Jones, Jason Schwartzman, Michelle Pfeiffer, and Chloë Grace Moretz (among the rest) would take this film, though. Maybe it looked better on paper. We don’t have a lot of movies that focus wholly on what moms do for the family only to find themselves making a run for it. I would wager a guess that most moms feel that way occasionally, no matter how much their family loves them. I’ve been there before – I’m sure we all have. So it makes sense that the messaging would be appealing.

But between the strange narration by Claire, a truly unnecessary theft that I assumed would be addressed again but wasn’t, and two children cheering like 3 year olds even though they’re about 7, this just wasn’t it for me. I gave it an extra half star for the Eva Longoria scene as well as the 10 seconds where another character quotes romance movies, but it’s too bad that this wasn’t way better.

Runtime: 107 minutes

Motion Picture Rating: PG-13

Languages Spoken In The Film: English

Should You Watch It? No

Did I Cry? Nope

My Rating: 2/5 Stars

Available: Free for Amazon Prime members