DIRECTOR: Josh
Gordon, Will Speck LEAD CAST: Jason Bateman, T.J. Miller, Olivia Munn,
Jennifer Aniston, Kate McKinnon Mary, Courtney Vance, Jillian Bell SCREENWRITER: Justin Malen, Laura Solon, Dan
Mazer & Jon Lucas, Scott Moore and Timothy Dowling PRODUCER: Guymon Casady, Daniel Rappaport, Scott Stuber EDITOR: Jeff Groth, Evan Henke MUSICAL DIRECTOR: Theodore Shapiro GENRE: Comedy CINEMATOGRAPHER: Jeff
Cutter DISTRIBUTOR: Paramount Pictures LOCATION:
Chicago,
Illinois; Georgia RUNNING TIME: 105 minutes
Technical assessment: 3.5
Moral assessment: 2
CINEMA rating: V18
The film tells the story of a
struggling branch of an IT company specializing in internet servers. The branch head Clay (TJ Miller) is the son of
the former owner, whose sister Carol (Jennifer Aniston) was made CEO after the
death of their father. Carol is bent on closing
the branch for missing its targets, which she arbitrarily set. The chief technical officer Josh (Jason
Bateman) is caught between the two warring siblings as the company tries to set
up a Christmas party to impress a potential client (Courtney Vance) who may be
able to deliver the account to keep their branch going.
Office Christmas Party delivers
the most entertainment with perfect timing. Here the characters and gags rule. Technical
elements are good enough; mishaps, even with the storyline, are overshadowed by
the ensemble of talented actor-comedians that makes this movie a treat for
adults. The office situations, the jokes and running gags can get predictable
towards the end but the cast manages to deliver the laughs. Bateman and Miller perform their lead parts
admirably, but it is the supporting cast of characters that makes the movie
memorable. Among them Kate Mckinnon as the straitlaced HR head, Randall Park as
standard office accountant, Jillian Bell as the soft menacing pimp and Fortune
Feimster as a newbie Uber driver. The movie is a jolly ruckus. Credit should go
to the directors and the team of six credited screenwriters for making this
chaotic world coherent enough to be a crowd pleaser and surprisingly
mainstream.
Although the movie does not purport to depict the
spirit of Christmas, the use of Christmas as its setting is
nevertheless offensive to Christians. The
meaning of Christmas, that of the birth of our Savior, is trivialized in the
film. It is commercialized, used as a platform for impressing a potential
client, and an excuse to indulge in excesses. Symbols of high spiritual value
for Christians, including the image of Jesus Christ, are presented with
irreverence.
