The new streaming movie on Amazon Prime Video, “Oh. What. Fun.”, is a comedy about the holidays and the challenges a mother, Claire, played by Michelle Pfeiffer, faces every year to get everything ready for Christmas, along with her husband Nick, played by Denis Leary. There is the arrival of her three children, Sammy played by Dominic Sessa, Channing played by Felicity Jones, and Taylor played by Chloë Grace Moretz. An ongoing competition with her neighbor Jeanne, played by Jeanne Wang-Wasserman, over who has the best decorations both inside and especially the outside of their houses. Some scenes of this ongoing competition are funny, mainly the interactions between Claire and Jeanne as they try to top each other with decorations and Christmas gifts. One scene with Claire defying Jeanne’s request to not have giant Christmas balloons on her lawn this year was one of the better parts of this film.

The rest of this story has to do with Claire’s three children and their respective relationship problems. Taylor is a lesbian and has a major misunderstanding with her girlfriend, resulting in their breakup during their visit. Sammy was dumped by his wife, mainly over his lack of desire to ever find a job, and Channing and her husband Doug, played by Jason Schwartzman, are having ongoing marital problems during their Christmas visit.

One of the most impressive things about this above-average comedy is the long list of relevant and successful actors, most of them in relatively small parts, compared to their previous movie roles, proving again how difficult it is to get a great role and stay relevant in Hollywood. Felicity Jones hit some huge high points in her acting career with “On the Basis of Sex” (2018), and last year’s (way too long) “The Brutalist”. For Michelle Pfeiffer, this movie is one of her first leading roles in many years.

There is a “Home Alone” moment when the family was scheduled to see a local performance amnd Nick and his daughter Channing think that the other person is taking Claire in their car, and she is left behind, setting the stage for a long road trip when Claire out of anger and disgust just drives from Atlanta Georgia and winds up in Burbank California on the set of a daytime TV show, hosted by a woman named Zazzy Tims, played by Eva Longoria. This last part of this story, for the most part, does not work, and seems more like a gimmick than a logical end to a Christmas comedy movie like this.

The very low 35% ratings on Rotten Tomatoes are justified as this film misses the mark in too many areas, starting with the obvious, it’s just not funny enough. One of the harshest reviews is from Peter Travers: “Oh, What. Crap. This lump of coal in our holiday stocking entraps Michelle Pfeiffer and is flat, stilted, lazy and so stretched out with Xmas clichés that you want to scream, bah-humbug.” While I think that this is too harsh a review, unfortunately, there are too many reviews that are this negative. No comedy that is not funny enough can be recommended, so I rate this movie a solid pass.