Review: Office Christmas Party

Office Christmas Party is a straightforward enough title for a film that alleges to be a workplace comedy. It's certainly stocked with a number of actors who have proven their comic chops in many other films, and who occasionally display those talents in this movie. A trio of screenwriters (Justin Malen, Laura Solon and Dan Mazer) appear to be aiming for a Dilbert meets Caligula type of scenario, but Office Christmas Party proves to be a dispiriting slog.

Jason Bateman stars as Josh, chief technical officer of the Chicago branch of a tech company who is first glimpsed signing his divorce papers. The end of his marriage may signal a clear path to a romance with his colleague Tracey (Olivia Munn), the company's lead engineer who is so obviously his soulmate, but there are more pressing things for Josh to deal with. Namely, the impending layoffs being mandated by the company's merciless CEO Carol (Jennifer Aniston), who is not only motivated to stem the company's financial failings but also to stick it to her fun-loving brother Clay (T.J. Miller), who inherited the job from their father.

Despite Carol canceling the office christmas party, Josh and Clay come up with a plan to throw a massive holiday bash in order to impress Walter (Courtney B. Vance) into awarding the company a huge contract in order to save everyone's jobs. Needless to say, the party devolves into an uncontrollable rager complete with a prostitutes, uninvited guests, egg nog being sucked out of a phallic ice sculpture, a snow blower that shoots out cocaine, and Walter being carried out in a stretcher.

None of these shenanigans elicits more than the intermittent chuckle. This is a film that is crammed and cluttered to the hilt, yet there's nothing really there. Bateman is barely engaged, which is understandable considering every other movie of his is almost always in this adults behaving badly vein. Miller makes for an endearing overgrown child, and Vance obviously has a riot as the unhinged Walter.

The women are the true MVPs of the film. Vanessa Bayer is amusing as Clay's assistant whose burgeoning office romance with a new hire (Randall Park) is plagued by his baby fetish. "Save that for the fourth date like a normal person," she chastises. Kate McKinnon once again jolts the proceedings with her wacky energy as the HR director who practically lives to organise the company party - ahem, non-denominational mixer. Just her bizarre delivery of the line "I have six parrots with medical issues, I'm going to have to put one down" when she learns of the potential layoffs makes one wish the whole movie had centered around her and the spiky exchanges between Aniston and Munn.

Office Christmas Party

Directed by: Josh Gordon, Will Speck

Written by: Justin Malen, Laura Solon and Dan Mazer

Starring: Jason Bateman, Olivia Munn, T.J. Miller, Jennifer Aniston, Courtney B. Vance, Kate McKinnon, Vanessa Bayer, Jillian Bell, Rob Corddry, Randall Park, Sam Richardson, Jamie Chung, Abbey Lee Kershaw, Matt Walsh