Oh. What. Fun. might win 2025’s prize for biggest gap between cast and movie. On paper a Christmas ensemble with Michelle Pfeiffer, Denis Leary, Felicity Jones, Chloë Grace Moretz, Dominic Sessa, and Jason Schwartzman sounds like a cozy theatrical draw. On screen it is a glossy, straight to streaming holiday comedy with half the charm you hope for and twice the subplot load it can handle.
Pfeiffer leads as Claire, a mom fretting over the family’s return while nursing the feeling that no one sees her. Her husband Nick, played by Denis Leary, takes her labor for granted, and her three kids, Channing, Taylor, and Sammy, played by Felicity Jones, Chloë Grace Moretz, and Dominic Sessa, show up with their own mini crises. Claire’s private wish is to be nominated for a daytime talk show’s “Best Holiday Mom” segment, a flimsy goal that never deepens into character. The film keeps teeing up moments for recognition and catharsis, then cuts away to chase the next bit of business.
Michael Showalter stages it all with a bright, frictionless sheen. He has made sharp crowd-pleasers before, but here the tone is safe and the rhythm is stop and start. The movie splinters into too many threads for any of them to matter, and the set pieces feel pre-fab. The jokes are pleasant and instantly forgettable. You can almost hear the notes that asked for something family friendly, broadly relatable, and easy to market, which is exactly what you get.
The cast works hard anyway. Moretz and Jones are game and get plenty to do, yet their arcs never find footing because the script keeps resetting the board. Sessa is the standout, a walking snow day of sad boy energy that fits the season and gives the film a pulse whenever he wanders through a scene. Pfeiffer centers the movie with professional ease, though Claire’s crisis is written as a loop rather than a progression, which leaves her spinning in place.
Production polish is not the issue. What is missing is personality. The film boils with family resentments, unmet creative ambitions, and the strange pressure to curate the perfect holiday, then refuses to turn any of them into comedy or drama. Even the running gag about the TV contest lands with a soft thud.
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I did not expect greatness from a Prime bound Christmas title, but with this cast I hoped for spark. Oh. What. Fun. goes down easy and vanishes just as quickly. Dominic Sessa deserves more holiday work. Michelle Pfeiffer deserves a script that lets her cook.
Score: 4/10
Oh. What. Fun. (2025)
- Cast: Michelle Pfeiffer, Denis Leary, Felicity Jones, Chloë Grace Moretz, Dominic Sessa, Jason Schwartzman, Havana Rose Liu, Eva Longoria
- Director: Michael Showalter
- Genre: Comedy, Holiday
- Runtime: 108 minutes
- Rated: PG-13
- Release Date: December 3, 2025
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