No. Not. Fun.

So I watched this new Christmas special recently called "Oh.  What.  Fun.".  It opens interestingly enough.  It's supposed to be about the thankless job of the mother, and I looked forward to seeing that perspective in a holiday movie.

It turned out to be about a woman who was just hungry for attention and constantly playing the part of the martyr.  She even wished she would be nominated for an award for being such a great mom.  Because just doing it for your family wasn't enough.  (Gee, I wonder if she will learn a lesson at the end?). 

She says she was trying to make things joyous for the family.  And all she wanted was for someone to offer to help.  Well, I mean, why don't you ask for it?  Instead of keeping it all to yourself and being upset when people can't read your mind.  When I see that my kids are staring to get spoiled a little bit too much, I let them know about it instead of spoiling them further.  And the kids do want to help you but sometimes they need guidance in how to support you.

When my kids forget my birthday or Father's Day, I just literally remind them.  I tell them what day it is and ask for a hug and kiss.  And they wish me the best and tell me they love me.  And it's okay if they didn't remember because they're kids and it happens.

There's a scene where she was about to give a present to a neighbor she didn't particularly like but then she changed her mind because she didn't think it would be good enough.  So she goes out of her way to please this person who is basically a stranger.  And we are supposed to dislike the neighbor for being nice to her.  The present doesn't matter.  It's just a token of appreciation and showing you that you were thought of.  She couldn't just thank her and reciprocate and move on with her day.

And then as a consequence, her family ends up leaving her.  Home alone.  Aaaargh!  Does she understand that she helped cause a chaotic situation and that is why there was this hilarious mix up?  Does she think of just picking up her phone and calling one of them?  She just watched them drive off so they were not that far.  They were actually hurrying to get there on time so as not to disappoint her.  Or does she call a Lyft and meet them there?  No.  She literally just sits on the couch staring at nothing and feeling sorry for herself. 

And then she decides to just drive off and not answer their calls.  And she travels across the country to appear on some show to nominate herself for being such a great mom.  And then she convinces the host to be all sorry for her.  And her family realized where she is and they scramble to get there and they publicly apologize?  But does she accept?  Nope.  Not good enough.  She just walks away.  Which is what you should do if you are thinking of watching this.

Queue Tips: The sly stoners.

I have been aware of the movie "The Family Stone" since it first came out, but I was never interested in watching it.  One of the main reasons is the title.  There is a band called Sly and the Family Stone.  So why would you give your movie a similar name?  At the very least, you could have called it "The Stone Family".  Or, to quote Wikipedia, "The Christmas Holiday Misadventures of the Stone Family".  Was the confusion intentional?  Was it better for marketing?  The tagline should have been, "Not your everyday people".

I didn't know much about the movie, but I always gathered that Stone was the name and that it was not about literally a stone that the family owns.  The title of the film was an indicator to me that this was written either lazily, incompetently, or both.  Incidentally, the writer-director of the film also did a movie called "The Good House".  I wonder if it's about the Good family and their house?  Or is it just a general statement that good people house others?

But anyways, it's a fictional family, so you couldn't come up with a different name?  I just googalized it, and apparently Sly Stone's actual last name is Sylvester.  It would have been more clever to name this movie "The Family Sylvester".  But it's obvious that the write just needed a last name for a family and having heard of the band, decided to call them the Family Stone.

This movie is set during Christmas, and as I often do during the holidays, I like to watch these types of movies after Thanksgiving through New Year's Day.  With Diane Keaton recently having passed, I was pleasantly surprised to remember that she was in this movie, with a big role, actually.  So I was in a receptive mood and looking forward to seeing her perform (without putting on a Woody Allen movie), especially in something that was new to me.

Sarah Jessica Parker is also in it.  I'm not a big fan.  I never understood the rage when she was in "Sex and the City".  (The rage.  Get it?  Apparently, her character's name was Carrie.).  She is probably a nice person, and husband Matthew Broderick seems to be able to stand her.  But I'm not impressed with her work.  So when the movie begins and all the other characters instantly just hate her, I could identify.  I liked this movie.

For those two facts, I mostly enjoyed it.  But then eventually, you do realize that the story is terribly written and not very well directed.  Despite that, most of the actors performed very well with the material they were working with.  Nonetheless, this is not going to be a yearly holiday film I will be going to watch.  Unless I was stoned.

Now I'm off to write my own magical holiday movie about a wizard family.  It's called the Sorcerers Stone.