Anna Kendrick and Melanie Lynskey directed by Joe Swanberg Jenny is a party girl but goes through a nasty breakup So she moves in with her brothers family therefore messes up their lives all during Christmas The actresses are very good despite not sharing that many scenes together yet the dialogue exchanges are pretty empty and meaningless, it’s like having uninteresting conversations so there’s not much investment You’re better off watching other Christmas movies

Could not get past the first 10 minutes🤦🏼‍♀️ never wanted to turn a movie off so quickly. Had the feel of a COVID movie... But turned out to be done in 2014,😮 Didn't care to see how it carried on. The positive reviews could not convince us to see what happened.

From my persepective, this movie has to be a serious contender for the title of 'most boring film of all time'. It's not actually bad, as such - no really painful bad acting, no bad cinematography. But there's just nothing of any interest in it at all. It's basically just a bunch of young, middle-class types hanging around and muttering about this and that (doing the dishes, is someone drinking too much). My own family are way more interesting. You could probably sit on a bus and eavesdrop on the people next to you and hear something more interesting. One couple have a fat baby, and the most interesting parts of the whole movie, to me, were just scenes where the fat baby was eating and playing. But you can watch babies eating and playing on YouTube without sitting through the other, completely boring, stuff. It doesn't help than one of the principal roles is played by Anna Kendrick, an actress who range runs the gamut from 0 to 0.00001. In everything I've seen her in, and in every picture I've seen of her, she has only shown two facial expressions - blank, and a silly grin (well, she has to transition, so you might get a half silly grin). I think the director of this movie was actually aware of this, as in the few scenes in this movie where her character has to show some sort of emotion she is filmed with her face turned away, buried in a blanket, or something similar, so she is never put to the strain of actually producing a facial expression. The other two lead actresses, Lena Dunham and Melanie Lynskey, can certainly act with some range, as I've seen them do it in other things, but here they just seemed to be muttering and making it up as they went along. I can't imagine why anyone thought that it was worthwhile to make this movie, or to release it. I guess there must be people who appreciate the vague mutterings of young, middle-class types more than me.

Once this movie actually got going, it was over. Some stuff to enjoy, but it didn't leave a lasting impression.

Awful. There was no ending, it just literally ended and that’s it.

This film is perfectly dreadful. I love Lena Dunham and Melanie Lynskey, but even their considerable talents could not elevate this film. I had never seen Anna Kendrick in anything, and I shan't watch her again. Not entirely her fault - this is a film with no story arc, unbelievable conversations, and nothing to say. The baby was the best thing in the entire film. Dull, pretentious, and NOT humorous.

I was expecting a decent movie and this was not it. It looked like it was shot on a shoestring budget. The editing was poor, story line was OK. For a movie with Anna Kendrick and Melanie Lynskey in it I was expecting better. Melanie had a bit of an accent, but wasn't to bad, I have never noticed it before. The best part was the little kid who was supposed to be about 2 yrs-old, who was excellent. The ending left you hanging and then in the credits there was more but it did not add anything to the movie. Watch at your own risk.

Absolutely unbearable

There is not a lot going on here. The cast is good but their characters are uninteresting and unlikable.

Interesting film, although it is also kind of strange. It's difficult for me to rate it, because I liked the characters and the independent style but the scenario is quite loose.

One long boring conversation.

That was so annoying .. nothing really happens, don't expect anything exciting even til the last second of the movie. Waste of time. The baby is very funny though!

Probably the worst Christmas movie I've ever seen, nothing Christmasy about it other than there was a tree on the set. Huge disappointment given the cast

The two year old was the best thing about this movie. He was adorable, funny, and intriguing. The other characters were emotionally constipated and lacked chemistry. I love all of the actors but there wasnâ(TM)t much material for them to work with because there wasnâ(TM)t much of a storyline and I can tell there was no script... everyone is clearly improvising. Overall, itâ(TM)s slow, awkward, and lacks any real emotion. It feels like a terrible first date. One way to make this movie fun might be to turn it into a drinking game. Take a drink every time someone says âlikeâ?. On second thought, donâ(TM)t do that. Youâ(TM)d end up dead.

Literally the worst movie I’ve ever seen.

This is one of the worst movies that I have ever watched in my life. Poor production, horrible cinematography, looks like it was shot with an old camcorder. Dull dialogue. Characters that I cared nothing about. Just horrible and it didn't make my season brighter at all. Had to turn it off before it finished because I didn't care what happened in the end. Nothing could have saved this flop.

The pacing is insufferably slow. Its riddled with pointless scenes. Only one line stood out the most when Anna Kendrick said: "I feel like time is going really slow". Yeah, I can relate. Characters are not interesting. I don't why it's called a comedy, I didn't laugh once. The dialogue was all over the place from not enough to too many at once. It was like watching grass grow.

Very natural dialogue and acting, but the story lacks clear purpose.

La plupart des films de Joe Swanberg se jouent surtout sur la qualité de l'improvisation des acteurs concernés et de leur alchimie. Dans Happy Christmas, Anna Kendrick joue une jeune alcoolique forcée de vivre avec son frère et sa femme, qu'elle aide à écrire un roman érotique. Anna Kendrick est douée dans beaucoup de choses, mais l'impro ne doit pas en faire partie, tout comme Mark Webber et Melanie Lynskey, ce qui est assez problématique car ce sont les rôles principaux. Malgré quelques séquences réussies (surtout quand Joe Swanberg est à l'écran), Happy Christmas tourne très vite à l'ennui poli et ce, même à moins de 80 minutes.

Strengths: A staple of Joe Swanberg films is mostly improvised dialogue. I didn't care much for it in Drinking Buddies (another film of his) but it worked better this time around. Everything sounded organic. Anna Kendrick (Jenny) was a great choice for the lead. After working on Drinking Buddies, she seemed more comfortable with his style. Lena Dunham (Carson) has something about her that is just unlikable, but despite it, she also handled things well. The best parts were the scenes of Jenny and Kelly (Melanie Lynskey) working on the novel together. It was heartwarming, witty and enjoyable. It's a smart film with relatable themes throughout. Weaknesses: The marketing for this is just weird. The Happy Christmas title doesn't work because the film is neither happy, nor really about Christmas. Most of the characters were dull and a lot of them didn't get full arcs. Jenny makes a potentially big mistake near the end by drunkenly burning food and nearly setting the house ablaze. Unfortunately, it doesn't amount to much. She just goes into hiding and then Kelly apologizes to her. That makes no sense. Jeff (played by Swanberg himself) is kind of just there, only getting one or two scenes of interest. Also, the film looks strange. I know it had a small budget ($70,000), but it came off looking very amateurish. Overall: It was my second Swanberg film and again, I came away underwhelmed. I applaud the improvised dialogue and some of the strong performances. The biggest issue was that a lot of the characters didn't do much of anything and Jenny, a character with a lot to overcome, didn't grow much at all.