Oh. What. Fun. review: At best, this film is a modest tribute to the invisible labour mothers pour into Christmas!

Oh. What. Fun. wants to be about more than just Christmas cheer but stumbles in its attempt to truly honour the festival’s most invisible force - mothers!

It’s funny how, while I was writing about Diwali’s “magic,” a film likeGreater Kalesh reminded me of the festival’s real irony that as I sat philosophizing the festival, my mother was sprinting around the house doing every chore imaginable just so everyone else could feel the Diwali vibe. Which is why I was genuinely glad to see a Diwali film that finally captured the chaos of a real Indian household and woke me up. Oh. What. Fun. works on the same principle, except this time, it’s Christmas. It’s a story for all the mothers who run themselves to exhaustion making the season feel festive while the rest of the family lounges with hot cocoa, blissfully unaware of the invisible labour holding everything together.

Dressed like a classic Hallmark Christmas film, it follows the Baker's family, reunited under one roof. The responsible eldest daughter, often overlooked, returns with her husband and twins. The coddled younger brother, directionless but forever the “perfect baby,” shows up too. And the middle child, celebrated despite her addiction issues, completes the trio. Add to this a petty rivalry with the neighbours whose Christmas décor reigns supreme and chaos is guaranteed. It’s a template Christmas setup where siblings have unresolved tensions, secrets are waiting to explode, and at the centre of it all is the mother, Claire. She is the glue, and the one person who never gets to be the protagonist of her own story.

Also Read: Greater Kalesh review: A Diwali film that brings messy reality to the romance of the festival!

We often say food tastes better when cooked by a mother’s hands because she “adds love to it.” Let’s be honest! She adds a lot of anger too! And Claire’s anger is justified. She cooks while everyone else sings, she serves everyone without ever sitting down and when Santa arrives, she’s told to sit so he can be thanked while she goes unacknowledged. At one point, the family literally forgets her at home and heads to a dance show she planned for them. That alone is reason enough for any mother to snap. So Claire does the unthinkable - she leaves. She walks out on Christmas to let her family fend for themselves. It’s a brilliant idea on paper but the film doesn’t fully commit to it. 

What follows is a “Christmas greatest hits” montage as Claire meets strangers, gets into funny mishaps, has her car towed, stays in a cabin with a stranger who needs loud TV and whale sounds to sleep and even busts her way in on to a reality show, one she always wanted to go on but her family forgot to nominate her. It’s everything we’ve seen in festive films, from going on heists to being alone, tackling strangers with a backdrop of Christmas. Though this time it’s just with a woman at the centre instead of a man. Which raises the irony - why do Christmas movies so often revolve around men when women are the ones doing all the behind-the-scenes work? Is it because invisible labour doesn’t look cinematic so it remains invisible on screen too? Maybe that's some food for thought for us all!

Scenes that show a venting smoking joint session with fellow exhausted mothers, funny as they are, barely scratches the surface of how deeply underappreciated moms are. They deserve more than sympathy; they deserve to share the load. The film does gesture toward that message but not with the depth it deserves. Expectations from a Hallmark-style Christmas film aren’t very high, they’re meant to sprinkle some seasonal cheer after all. And Oh. What. Fun. does aim for that but as the full stops in the title suggest, it wants to be about more than just fun. And despite a messy ending and a too-easy resolution, the film delivers its core message buoyed by a star-studded cast and maybe that’s enough for now. 

Oh. What. Fun. is currently streaming on Amazon Prime Video!

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