Sequel-franchising a comedy by bringing in the uproariously inappropriate older generation is becoming a bit of a familiar move. Daddy’s Home is about to do it, and now it’s the turn of A Bad Moms Christmas, an entertaining film largely unconcerned about good taste and where, or if, an apostrophe should go in the title.
It follows up the story of Bad Moms, which came out just last year, about those woefully inadequate parents and caregivers Amy, Kiki and Carla, played by Mila Kunis, Kristen Bell and Kathryn Hahn. Now their own terrifying mothers are coming to stay for Christmas, played by Christine Baranski, Cheryl Hines and Susan Sarandon. They are respectively named Ruth, Sandy and finally Isis – as the latter helpfully explains, “like the terrorist organisation”.
I thought no one could steal any comedy from Kathryn Hahn, but Christine Baranski completely walks off with this one, playing Amy’s domineering mother. In contrast to her daughter’s unpretentious style, she is groomed and uptight, wealthy, reactionary, high church and impossible to please, and quite unable to stop herself making it clear how much of a disappointment her daughter is to her. She makes wounding personal comments about Amy’s weight, but claims: “One day she will thank me in an inspirational speech in some large public venue.”
Ruth makes it clear that, far from being happy just to be a houseguest over Christmas, she wants to take over. She invites over a hundred people to a grotesquely expensive catered event at Amy’s house and has even booked Kenny Gee in person – “less expensive than you might think” – on the grounds that he is “the godfather of smooth jazz”. She also insists that Amy take part in some absurdly upper-middle class “carolling” competition, in which she will have to dress in a Dickensian costume.
Kiki’s mom – amusingly played by Hines, maybe better known as the wife and then ex-wife of Larry David in Curb Your Enthusiasm – has a creepy obsession with wanting to be her daughter’s best friend and insists on having the same dress sense and the same clothes. She is inappropriately intimate.
As for Susan Sarandon, the jury is still out as to whether she really understands comedy but she plays it confidently enough: the sort of mom who is still a rock chick and was a roadie for REO Speedwagon for 15 years. Kathryn Hahn’s Carla works in a beauty salon, is jaded after grooming vagina after vagina, but then finds true love when a male stripper comes to get his balls waxed and impresses her with his sensitivity and manhood.
It’s very silly and more than a little sentimental, but often really funny. Only one thing was lacking. One line suggests that Christine Baranski’s own formidable mother is still alive. If Bad Moms is back for a third movie, this is surely a role for Betty White?
