[7.7/10] I can’t say I’ve seen a ton of Hallmark holiday movies. If you’re like me, you have relatives who just love the 2009 Renee Zellweger vehicle New in Town which is essentially an upscale version of the same idea. You catch clips of them here and there online around the holidays. And the basic beats are familiar through cultural osmosis. Girl goes to a small town to change it, and it ends up changing her, with a new beau and some yuletide mirth for good measure.
A Clusterfunke Christmas is a delightful skewering of those tropes with energy and humor. Saturday Night Live alumnae Ana Gasteyer and Rachel Dratch wrote the Hallmark spoof and play the two matron-turned-makeover aunts who run the homey local inn. They bring that 1990s SNL vibe to the film, with a winking, broad approach to the humor that nonetheless elicits plenty of laughs through tone and charm alone.
The movie pokes great fun at the form. Characters identify themselves as disposable or convenient best friends there to deliver backstory. The innkeepers rattle off any number of stock plots that explain why young women from the big city deign to visit their mirthful small towns. Lovers fumble over what the Kris Kringle-approved message of the tale and of the season is. Diverse characters are gestured toward though not centered with explication of the canard, and conspicuous product placement is both utilized and satirized at once. There isn’t much in the way of teeth to the special’s critiques of the standard Hallmark routine, but it does recognize the tropes and spoof them with relish.
Vella Lovell does well as the star, an exaggeratedly business-focused go-getter who learns to slow down, help out, and find love in the humble hamlet of Yuletown. She’s capable of playing the material straight when necessary, but also hamming it up when the proceedings get loonier. Her hunky lumberjack love interest, Frank, is pretty generic, but appropriately so for the spoof, and her jerk ex, a blue blood bore named Chance, is an amusingly over-the-top counterweight. True to the source of the spoof, the movie never pretends there’s any real doubt as to who Holly’s going to pick, but has fun with the paper-thin love triangle nevertheless.
But the real stars of the piece are Gasteyer and Dratch, who nearly steal the show as Frank aunts whose failing business may mean this is the last Xmas for the Clusterfunke Inn. Whether the duo are marveling/freaking out at the latest technologies of 1996, strutting their stuff in a dress barn makeover, or pointing to any number of embroidered signs with increasingly bizarre Clusterfunke family sayings, the two are a barrel of laughs every time. They’re timing and expressions and physical comedy through the whole thing are as much, if not more, funny than their script.
The recurring loony bits aren’t bad either. The unfortunate, sensitive ginger family who floats through various scenes are a good running gag. The incidental music that turns out to be played by people in town is an old joke, but one that still works every time. And the various quaint absurdities of Yuletown, from a fruitcake cornhole game to the silliness of a bonfire to let Santa know where to find you, bring plenty of chuckles.
With that, A Clusterfunke Christmas knows what it is. The humor is light, but winning. The characters are broad, but fun. And the plot is predictable, but parodying that fact at the same time. The tongue-in-cheek spoof is a steaming mug of holiday yuks, served up with charm and style by Gasteyer and Dratch.
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParentSpoilers2022-12-09T05:08:53Z
[7.7/10] I can’t say I’ve seen a ton of Hallmark holiday movies. If you’re like me, you have relatives who just love the 2009 Renee Zellweger vehicle New in Town which is essentially an upscale version of the same idea. You catch clips of them here and there online around the holidays. And the basic beats are familiar through cultural osmosis. Girl goes to a small town to change it, and it ends up changing her, with a new beau and some yuletide mirth for good measure.
A Clusterfunke Christmas is a delightful skewering of those tropes with energy and humor. Saturday Night Live alumnae Ana Gasteyer and Rachel Dratch wrote the Hallmark spoof and play the two matron-turned-makeover aunts who run the homey local inn. They bring that 1990s SNL vibe to the film, with a winking, broad approach to the humor that nonetheless elicits plenty of laughs through tone and charm alone.
The movie pokes great fun at the form. Characters identify themselves as disposable or convenient best friends there to deliver backstory. The innkeepers rattle off any number of stock plots that explain why young women from the big city deign to visit their mirthful small towns. Lovers fumble over what the Kris Kringle-approved message of the tale and of the season is. Diverse characters are gestured toward though not centered with explication of the canard, and conspicuous product placement is both utilized and satirized at once. There isn’t much in the way of teeth to the special’s critiques of the standard Hallmark routine, but it does recognize the tropes and spoof them with relish.
Vella Lovell does well as the star, an exaggeratedly business-focused go-getter who learns to slow down, help out, and find love in the humble hamlet of Yuletown. She’s capable of playing the material straight when necessary, but also hamming it up when the proceedings get loonier. Her hunky lumberjack love interest, Frank, is pretty generic, but appropriately so for the spoof, and her jerk ex, a blue blood bore named Chance, is an amusingly over-the-top counterweight. True to the source of the spoof, the movie never pretends there’s any real doubt as to who Holly’s going to pick, but has fun with the paper-thin love triangle nevertheless.
But the real stars of the piece are Gasteyer and Dratch, who nearly steal the show as Frank aunts whose failing business may mean this is the last Xmas for the Clusterfunke Inn. Whether the duo are marveling/freaking out at the latest technologies of 1996, strutting their stuff in a dress barn makeover, or pointing to any number of embroidered signs with increasingly bizarre Clusterfunke family sayings, the two are a barrel of laughs every time. They’re timing and expressions and physical comedy through the whole thing are as much, if not more, funny than their script.
The recurring loony bits aren’t bad either. The unfortunate, sensitive ginger family who floats through various scenes are a good running gag. The incidental music that turns out to be played by people in town is an old joke, but one that still works every time. And the various quaint absurdities of Yuletown, from a fruitcake cornhole game to the silliness of a bonfire to let Santa know where to find you, bring plenty of chuckles.
With that, A Clusterfunke Christmas knows what it is. The humor is light, but winning. The characters are broad, but fun. And the plot is predictable, but parodying that fact at the same time. The tongue-in-cheek spoof is a steaming mug of holiday yuks, served up with charm and style by Gasteyer and Dratch.