OFFICE CHRISTMAS PARTY
Of f i ce Christmas parties, much l i ke New Year’s Eve, I nternational Talk Like a Pirate Day, and any other kind of scheduled f un, often f ail to l i ve up to the hype.
You may t hink it ’ s going t o be all j olly Secret Santas and good employer t i dings, but the next minute you’ve drunkenly smashed your colleague’s f i nest china, stashed the remains in t he f i re and sworn to take i t to your grave unless t he opportunity arises to talk about it i n a
Herald on Sunday movie review years l ater. With all those pressures i n mind, ensemble comedy Office Christmas Party hopes to pull off t he unthinkable: to not be a total l et- down.
In a similar vein to recent comedy giants The Hangover, Superbad, and
Sisters, Office Christmas Party narrows it s scope to a one- night- only affair.
Set i n snowy downtown Chicago, a data specialist branch l ooks t o be axed on Christmas Eve by tyrannical CEO Carol Vanstone ( Jennifer Aniston). With t he profits plummeting under the management of her i diot brother, Clay ( T. J. Miller), the senior employees are sent scrambling t o save their j obs.
The only f easible solution — because this i s movie l and and not the real world — is t o t hrow a huge banging office party to l ure i n potential i nvestors and save Christmas.
The banal setting, as Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant mastered i n The Office, i s bursting with recognisable characters ri pe f or dissecting. There’s the overzealous HR i n an i nclusive denomination Christmas j umper, the awkward new I T guy with disturbing depths, the clearly i n- l ove colleagues and the hapless man- baby boss.
Leading man Jason Bateman plays chief technical adviser Josh Parker, a glum divorcee with puppy dog eyes f or Tracy ( Olivia Munn), the anarchic coder across the cubicles.
Although t he big names on the poster, the l eading pair have t he fi l m completely stolen f rom them by TJ Miller ( Silicon
Valley) who plays the buffoon boss, and Kate McKinnon ( Ghostbusters) as t he f arting HR busybody.
Where something l i ke The Office skewers the minutiae of everyday mundanity, Office Christmas Party knee- sli des over t he details, does a Jagerbomb and moons the audience whilst cackling maniacally. Expect a l ot more binge drinking, effluence and nudity than you might get at your average wine and cheese afternoon. It ’ s a wafer- t hin premise with wafer- t hin stakes, j ust t rying t o claw t hrough ti me t o get to the glowstickt outing, shutter- shades wearing party montage. That’s not to say there aren’t good moments, TJ Miller delivers meandering observations l i ke no other, f rom “it ’ s so hard t o shop f or t he bald” t o “shoot f or t he moon and you’ll l and on t he sun.” Office Christmas Party would no doubt
be a rollicking night out, if you and some co workers want to chug a few vodka cruiser sat the bowling alley and hit up the nearest cinema. But if you brave it sober, many of the jokes fall flat, the party scenes become grating and t he characters become borderline insufferable.
There are large impressive stunts, pratfalls and chaos, but seldom does
Office Christmas Party ever actually shock or delight in the way that it think sit does. The cast boasts some of t he greatest working comedy actors, not to mention some novelty cameos. But it’s not quite enough to save Christmas this time.