The details
today. Mila Kunis and Jay Hernandez. Kathryn Hahn, Kunis, Bell and Phil Pierce.
Flashback to five days earlier, and the early arrival of the bad grandmums. Each has her own, shall we say, exaggerated quirk. For Kiki’s mom (Hines), it’s an extremely unhealthy attachment to her daughter. Carla’s mum (Sarandon) is a pot-smoking hipster in a black leather jacket (Sarandon could do this part with her eyes closed).
Then there’s Amy’s mum Ruth (Baranski), a Palm Beach doyenne, who wears fur and spews gifts. “Have some iPhones,” she tells her grandkids. “Have some Xboxes.” It’s Ruth who creates the central drama, with her insistence that Christmas be perfect. “Amy this is Christmas, it’s the BIG SHOW,” she says.
As for Carla’s mum, Isis — “like the terror group,” she explains, in what will seem a sorely unfortunate joke to many — she’s in need of money, as usual. And she might just be taking advantage of Carla, a single mum who works giving waxes in a salon.
Feeling tense, the younger mums meet up at the mall, where they take out their frustrations on that poor Santa we mentioned. In a montage.
It’s all leading up to Christmas Eve, and the showdown between Amy and her mother that we know is coming. Along the way, we’ll meet a few appealing characters in cameos. The best is Justin Hartley (This Is Us), doing what he can with a pretty gross scene.
But it’s Baranski who steals the show. Watch her apologise, painfully: “For the tiny fraction of blame that falls on me, I am sorry. “
Don’t blame her — or any of the actors — for the lame script. It’s not even a tiny fraction their fault. — AP