Season’s gratings
Comedy needs more haughty, fewer hotties
The yuletide sequel to Bad Moms might just be a new kind of Christmas classic — one that opens obscenely early (the day after Halloween!) and is conveniently out of theatres and all but forgotten by the time the actual holiday rolls around.
Remember the first movie? It’s OK if you don’t — it was a whole 15 months ago. It was about three women who cut loose in protest of everything moms are expected to do. This one moves the action to December and adds the mom’s moms to the mix.
So mousy Kiki (Kristen Bell) gets a visit from Cheryl Hines, so keen on being her best friend that she’s become a stalker. Messed-up Carla (Kathryn Hahn) receives Susan Sarandon, a rock-chick roadie who never grew up. And Amy (Mila Kunis), who tries so hard to be perfect, has to deal with Christine Baranski, who actually is, or at least thinks she is. Baranski turns out to be the Bad
Moms Christmas present. From the moment she wafts into her daughter’s house — “Here, have some Xboxes,” she says, tossing wrapped packages at her dumbstruck grandkids — she is the movie’s beating comic heart.
And a good thing too, because under the guidance of returning directors Jon Lucas and Scott Moore, no one else seems quite sure what tone they’re going for.
Bridesmaids or Love Actually? There are numerous slow-motion montages of moms behaving badly, but also sweeter moments with husbands and boyfriends. Maybe it’s Baranski’s seasonal worker experience, with roles in Recipe for a Perfect Christmas, How the Grinch Stole Christmas and the Christmas-set The Ref. It’s the height of class, crass and cash when Kunis upsets her party decorations and Baranski bellows: “Those were from the Titanic!” Movies may be full of hotties, but give me a haughty any day. Alas, Baranski can’t save
Christmas all by herself. The rest of the movie is a weird paean to consumerism, a few set pieces involving a family counsellor (Wanda Sykes) and an exotic dancer (Justin Hartley), and a 20-minute commercial for a chain of indoor family entertainment centres that I won’t stoop to name. It may be the season for giving, but I’ve already given this film two stars (one for Baranksi) and that’s enough.