Joyce Glasser reviews Office Christmas Party (December 7, 2016)
If the title doesn’t say it all, the cast tells you the rest. There are few surprises in Office Christmas Party, a dependably mindless popcorn movie, best seen after a few too many beers at the multiplex bar. There is a welcome moral lingering in the background, but the spectre of capitalism leaves little room for Christmas spirit.
A big chunk of the $45 million dollar budget is divided between the stars salaries, the large ensemble cast and the clean-up costs of this party from hell. If you feel short-changed in the way of laughs, the cast comprises some of the top comedians around. Better to look elsewhere. Of the three writers, Dan Mazur is the best known. Mazur’s most recent scripts are I Give it a Year, which felt like ten, and the excruciatingly embarrassing Dirty Grandpa. Jennifer Aniston and Jason Bateman have worked together before on the two disappointing Horrible Bosses and in the predictable, uninspired romcom The Switch – directed by Office Christmas Party directors Will Speck and Josh Gordon.
New York City based CEO Carol Vanstone (Aniston) inherited Zenotek from her father, and is now closing down branches that do not meet their targets. When she pays a visit to the high-spec Chicago branch run by her party-loving brother, Clay (T.J. Miller), it’s not to drop by the non-denominational Christmas cheese-board.
Carol has nothing but criticism for Clay who ‘took six years to graduate’ from his course in ‘Canadian television theory.’ His branch is selling enough servers and they have nothing new. Carol tells management, including recently divorced Josh Parker (Bateman), that she is laying off 40% of the staff and cancelling Christmas bonuses.
Josh knows that their one hope is closing a big account with Walter (Courtney B Vance). With his technical assistant, Tracey (Olivia Munn) and Clay, Josh goes off to make the pitch. When it fails, the three have a brain storm. ‘Walter, do you party?’ he is asked on his way to the door. He turns and replies, ‘I used to.’
Now Clay has an excuse to organise a Christmas party the likes of which Walter, and certainly Zenotek, have never seen before. But despite the DJ, the booze, the dancing, and the presence of Chicago Bulls basketball star Jimmy Butler (himself) Walter feels uncomfortable and wants to leave. On his way out a squirt of cocaine, that had been accidently fed into a dispensing machine, hits him in the face. Walter undergoes a transformation, proclaiming his love for Zenotek. We later learn that there is a problem with that promise, although it lacks the punch it ought to have.
With Walter gone, there is one last hope. For four years Tracy has been working on a programme that would revolutionise the way we all use our mobile phones. She is just missing one final piece to the puzzle, but will the break-through come in time?
Office Christmas Party does have a few funny lines, missing from Bad Santa 2. It also has a plot whereas Bad Santa 2 had none at all. It is this thread of a plot, and a subplot – involving nerdy manager Nate’s (Karan Soni) attempt to pass off a coke-peddling hooker as his girlfriend – that keep the movie skipping over the toilet humour, vulgar fart jokes and tired gags.
Olivia Munn in Office Christmas Party
The film is an occasion for some imaginative casting, but as in The Switch, where the lead male role seem reversed, Speck and Gordon stick to type casting. Bateman plays the good natured, fair playing, diplomatic, ‘safe pair of hands’ character. At one point, Carol tries to lure him away from Clay to join her at double the salary in NYC. Later we find out that she has offered Tracey triple her salary to do the same, in what is a point for gender pay equality, even if we don’t know what Tracey has been earning.
Aniston can play Carol in her sleep, while TJ Miller is, as in the HBO comedy series Silicon Valley, again running a high tech company in which he is surrounded by people who, he feels, would be lost without him. At least Clay is not pompous like Erlich, just an incompetent with a good heart. Is it really funny that he is running around with the cash bonuses strapped to his person under his Santa Claus suit?
Saturday Night Lives comediennes Kate McKinnon and Vanessa Bayer play goofy, staff members in the mood for love who never convince. Most of their jokes and gags fall flat. Only Olivia Munn, who keeps her cleavage pretty much under wraps, is cast against type as the brains that might save her colleagues’ jobs.
Some people may welcome the predictable casting, while still find themselves suffering from party fatigue. Starting with American Pie there has been a long line of riotous party scenes, including last year’s Sisters, in which sibling rivalry destroys the family home; or Neighbours and Neighbours 2 in which a fraternity house and its neighbour’s home are all but totalled. And then there is the hilarious, The Hangover. Regrettably, Office Christmas Party is not in that league.
You can watch the film trailer here:
