Michelle Pfeiffer plays put-upon mom in Atlanta-shot Amazon Xmas film
Christmas movies come in a handful of flavors, from Hallmark romance-style fantasies to family-friendly goofs with male protagonists.
Michael Showalter, who directed last year’s fun romance “The Idea of You” with Anne Hathaway in Atlanta, opted for a more screwball comedy with his Amazon holiday film “Oh. What. Fun.,” with the periods incorporated for sarcastic emphasis. The film, which was shot in metro Atlanta, is streaming now on Amazon Prime.
The protagonist is Michelle Pfeiffer’s sweet but distracted mom Claire Clauster, whose three adult children and clueless husband (played by Denis Leary) take her for granted.
Claire feels so underappreciated by her family, she cuts and runs just before Christmas after they accidentally leave her behind in a twist on “Home Alone.”
Claire is no saint: She commits blatant shoplifting and sneaks onto the set of a live Christmas Day talk show hosted by Zazzy Tims, played by Eva Longoria with vim and vigor.
“Michelle is one of my favorite actresses of all time,” Showalter said in a Zoom interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “She has been in so many movies that I love. Dramas. Comedies. Thrillers. This character is funny but is also incredibly human and complicated. She has a rich inner life. It was important to work with someone like Michelle to bring that all out.”
The ensemble cast features a bevy of well-respected actors, some better known for comedy like Leary and Jason Schwartzman (“Rushmore”), and others who have more dramatic chops like Felicity Jones (“Rogue One: A Star Wars Story”) Dominic Sessa (“The Holdovers”) and Chloe Grace Moretz (“Kick-Ass”).
“I wanted to create this interesting interweaving of tones between these cast members,” Showalter said.
Moretz, who grew up in Cartersville, plays Taylor, who brings home a different girlfriend every Christmas. “She does this to create a buffer between her and her crazy family,” she said.
Sessa’s Sammy, the youngest son, is nursing a broken heart when his girlfriend breaks up with him right before Christmas. “I love Sammy’s vulnerability but I dislike how closed off he is to his family, especially his mom,” Sessa said. “He feels her love is guaranteed and he doesn’t have to work at it or show appreciation for it.”
Like a lot of these types of Christmas movies, this one was shot in July in Atlanta when temperatures typically hit 90 degrees. “It was brutal,” Showalter admitted. (Since this film was fictionally set in Houston, the cast didn’t have to wear heavy winter coats outside.)
Showalter’s locations crew found a Buckhead house to be the Clauster home, on par with the McAllister home in “Home Alone.” It also happened to be across the street from a significantly snazzier house that, in the movie, is owned by the seemingly perfect Wang-Wasserman family.
In fact, Claire’s neighbor Jeanne Wang-Wasserman, played with subtle snobbish disdain by veteran actress Joan Chen, fuels her ire almost as much as her family’s benign neglect.
“The Clausters have a nice house,” Showalter notes. “The Wangs have a mansion. Joan was someone who could match up with Michelle. She’s a comic genius. She’s so funny.”
Showalter’s favorite scene, about two-thirds through the film, features Sammy and a new lady friend gleefully dancing in a bar to No Doubt’s cover of “It’s My Life” while a montage of what the other characters are dealing with at the same time is shown.
“It feels very nostalgic,” Showalter said. “It takes me back to movies from the ‘80s and my own childhood. I grew up on John Hughes and Cameron Crowe. It’s romantic. These characters are changing and growing in different ways.”
If you watch
“Oh. What. Fun.,” available on Amazon Prime
About the Author
Rodney Ho writes about entertainment for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution including TV, radio, film, comedy and all things in between. A native New Yorker, he has covered education at The Virginian-Pilot, small business for The Wall Street Journal and a host of beats at the AJC over 20-plus years. He loves tennis, pop culture & seeing live events.
