At least Office Christmas Party (2016) has the word “Christmas” in the title.  Further, oddly enough, it actually speaks, in the most roundabout way possible, to some of the themes that make this time of the year exciting for people.  Finally, unbelievably, there are nativity elements and genuine prayer prominently featured.  The former appears in the most irreverent, borderline blasphemous way possible.  Yet, the makers of this film bothered to put them in their production, so this Catholic noticed them.  It is more than you will see in many of its cinematic cousins.  It is mainly that borderline blasphemy, not just in how you see the Holy Family used but in the general behavior depicted on screen, that makes this one a hard pass.  Yet, God gives us a world full of variety, for better or worse, and I am here (eventually) to highlight the better.

Personally, there is nothing better than a movie set in Chicago, and this is where the Office Christmas Party will take place.  The particular corporate surroundings are the fictional tech firm Zenotek.  Their head of advancement, the newly divorced Josh Parker (Jason Bateman), gets to the office after concluding his legal proceedings.  On his way up to confer with the president of the Chicago branch, Clay Vanstone (T. J. Miller), Josh greets a number of employees who will be introduced as needed.  Josh’s main concern is landing a new deal with Walter Davis (Courtney B. Vance), who represents a large corporation.  If Zenotek can get their business, it would go a long way to helping their fortunes.  Clay, on the other hand, is more interested in discussing the upcoming eponymous soiree.  The only person who can play Grinch in this scenario is Carol Vanstone (Jennifer Aniston), the overall chief executive officer (CEO) of Zenotek and Clay’s sister.  When their father passed away, control of the company went to her, and she is all business, whereas here brother is . . . not.  She has come to Chicago to inform Clay that she is going to downsize his branch unless he can boost business by the end of the quarter in two days.  More importantly, she is telling them that they must cancel their party.  As such Clay and Josh pin all their hopes on getting Walter to buy into Zenotek.  Their pitch to Walter is pedestrian in his eyes.  What gets him to listen further is when Tracey Hughes (Olivia Munn), Zenotek’s lead software designer, comes up with the idea of inviting Walter to their holiday shindig.  He accepts, and now they must put everything together on short notice.  Luckily (truly for lack of a better word), Clay is irresponsible enough to pull this off.  After all, this is supposed to be a comedy.  As things get started, simmering fears of the employees being on the brink of losing their jobs and lingering feuds between them make for rather tame proceedings.  A few developments, though, serve to change the tone of the evening.  First, information technology (IT) director Nate (Karan Soni) hires a prostitute, Savannah (Abbey Lee), to be the girlfriend he had lied to his co-workers about having.  Before bringing her up, he must pay her pimp, Trina (Jillian Bell), who is predictably insane.  Because of stereotypes, Savannah has cocaine on her, which ends up being inadvertently blown into Walter’s face, thus loosening him up to have a good time, being egged on by Clay.  As for the rest, the dancing and debauchery is kicked off by Josh and Tracey, who don snowman costumes before stepping onto the floor.  Walter begins having such a good time that he tells everyone assembled that he will be doing business with Zenotek.  Their fortunes appear to be set and the movie ends.  I am kidding, of course, because it is at this time that Carol learns of the party she expressly forbade, and returns to the office full of righteous anger.  As Clay and Josh are trying to calm her down with news of Walter’s decision, the revelry inspired businessman attempts to swing from a string of Christmas lights and instead faceplants into a filing cabinet on the bottom floor.  Literally adding insult to injury, the human resources (HR) director, Mary (Kate McKinnon), takes this opportunity to let Carol and Clay know that Walter had been fired by his company.  This means there is no deal to be made.  Carol reacts in her predictably vindictive manner, saying that she is going to completely shut down the Chicago office.  A distraught Clay stumbles out of the building and runs into Trina, who has just been informed by Savannah that he has $300,000 on him.  With bickering breaking out between the employees sober enough to realize what has happened, everyone finally realizes that Clay is gone.  Luckily, Nate has software that can locate their boss.  After being reminded how awful it would be to lose her brother, Carol joins Josh, Mary, and Tracey in locating Clay.  They get to Trina’s seedy South Side haunt just in time to see Clay speed off in Trina’s car, determined to use it to hop the Clark Street Bridge over the Chicago River.  Josh and the rest catch up with them, and after some fruitless arguing, Carol causes both cars to wreck instead making a suicidal jump.  The vehicle Clay is operating ends up crashing into a grid that (somehow) knocks out internet for the whole of Chicago.  Have no fear, however, my fellow Chicagoans because Tracey has been working on a technology that allows electrical power to be used as an internet source . . . or something.  Rushing back to a shattered office from their over-the-top party, Josh and Tracey manage to get it online and working, thus saving the Chicago branch.  We close with Josh and Tracey return to the hospital to pick up a grateful Carol and Clay.

Typically, I would say something here like: I was grateful when Office Christmas Party ended, and that statement is true.  It was an assault on my Catholic sensibilities, getting progressively worse as it went along, with drinking, drugs, and nudity galore.  Unfortunately, such outrageousness seems to be becoming more commonplace in our culture, and that is sad.  The situation is not helped by Clay, who, as Carol asserts and his antics confirm, is not the brightest.  Then again, it takes any amount of intelligence to make poor decisions, as a sinner like me can attest.  As such, I was struck when Clay, before the party begins, takes a moment in front of the mirror to ask God that the party be successful.  What is even more striking about this Divine entreaty is that it is not done for selfish reasons.  He may be irresponsible, but his intentions are purely focused on saving the jobs of his employees.  Prayer is rare enough in cinema, but when it happens, it is typically by people asking for some kind of miracle to help them personally.  Clay asks nothing for himself, though he also sees the possibility of an intervention from on high as no less miraculous.  It is the best moment in the film, though it does not constitute a reason to watch it by itself.  Along these lines, what I can say is that God works in mysterious ways.  Our ultimate reward for such generosity, if done consistently, is Heaven, but it is obvious that Clay would not think about such matters.  Hence, we get to see his good works have the proper effect for the people about whom he cares.  Like so many instances in real Faith lives, things do not turn out as expected.  We can ask God for specific things, and it could happen just as we hope.  More often, God has something different, something better in mind, and it is up to us to accept it.  Doing so is the best thing we can ever do, I promise.  It takes an attitude roughly similar to Clay’s, and I cannot emphasize enough the word “roughly.”  One could call it childlike, which would be more Biblical, but I do not wish to be uncharitable.

Indeed, it is difficult to be charitable about a movie like Office Christmas Party.  As discussed in the introduction, it has “Christmas” in the title.  However, it also has the word party in it, and it came out in 2016.  That should tell you everything you need to know about the material, save for what I have highlighted in this review.