My review of Happy Christmas (2014) will be a short one.  Its brevity can be blamed on two factors.  First, and most glaringly, it is not a Christmas movie.  The opening credits feature a Christmas tree, there are gift exchanges, but none of the “story” has anything to do with the holidays.  I put story in quotations because this is the second reason for my curt reaction.  I am not sure it merits such a label.  It is as if someone with a camera was given permission to follow a family of three and dad’s visiting sister for a few weeks, and wherever the action stopped at the end of that period is where they ended the . . . film?  If this has any saving grace, it is that it is set in Chicago and is not long, clocking in at a little over eighty minutes.  Despite not being lengthy, as you will note, it gave me plenty of cause to want to shut it off before I finished it.  You will see why as I give you some semblance of a synopsis.

Jeff (Joe Swanberg) and Kelly (Melanie Lynskey) appear to be set to have at least a semblance of a Happy Christmas when Jeff’s sister, Jenny (Anna Kendrick), arrives.  Jeff has insisted Jenny come to stay with them in Chicago, at least for the holidays, in the wake of breaking up with her boyfriend.  They greet Jenny warmly, showing her where she is going to sleep and feeding her dinner.  Afterwards, Jenny is picked up by her friend, Carson (Lena Dunham), and they go out for a party.  Before Jenny departs, Jeff asks if she can babysit his son the next day while Kelly runs errands.  Since Jenny feels indebted to them for their hospitality, she readily agrees.  She then proceeds to get wasted at a party to the point that Carson cannot revive Jenny, having to call Jeff in the middle of the night for assistance.  Kelly is understandably upset, not sure she can trust Jenny with her child.  Though Jeff asks his wife to give his sister another chance, Jenny sleeps past when Kelly leaves for appointments.  When Jenny finally stirs, she is surprised to find Kevin (Mark Webber), a family friend, watching the toddler.  These two end up co-babysitting until Kelly’s return.  Doing so makes up for Jenny’s faux pas, and she is given another chance to watch Kelly’s son.  This time, Jenny invites Carson over to help, and Kelly finds the two at the basement bar having a few drinks.  In case you are wondering where the child is, he is napping.  Carson and Jenny beckon Kelly to join them for a beverage.  During their conversation, we learn that Kelly is an author.  Jenny praises her sister-in-law’s ability, which provides Kelly the inspiration to ask Jeff if she could spend some time working on her next novel.  The place he suggests to do so is his former office, which is currently not in use.  Jenny joins Kelly there, and the former spurs the latter to pen a trashy romance story, thinking that it would sell better.  Through a number of visits, with some input from Carson, they brainstorm story ideas.  Outside of this, Jenny spends the rest of her time with Kevin.  When she is not drinking, getting high with him, or sleeping with him, she is in Jeff’s basement doing the first of those activities.  She even looks into getting her own apartment, even being shown one with Kevin, but that goes nowhere.  Still, life seems okay, except for the substance abuse, but Jenny being who she is, nearly wrecks everything.  One night while out with Kevin, they stumble out of a bar and she wants to go back to his place for more of their usual routine.  He is flattered by her forwardness, but begs off saying that he is leaving in the morning to visit his parents for Christmas.  She angrily departs, calling him names, and proceeds to the basement for more alcohol and marijuana.  At some point, she had left food cooking in the oven.  In the wee hours, the smoke alarm goes off, waking everyone, even the inebriated Jenny.  Jeff and Kelly are not pleased, but she blithely points out that it is only smoke.  Still, the next day being Christmas morning, Jeff and Kelly are surprised when Jenny does not join them for presents.  Instead, she goes to the cinema, and later Kelly finds Jenny at the office.  They make up, Jenny is invited back, and the movie ends.

There is a pointless end-credits scene for Happy Christmas with Carson, Jenny, and Kelly bouncing more ideas for the novel off one another.  Like everything else, it goes nowhere and is wildly inappropriate.  Hence, what can I possibly say about this movie from a Catholic perspective?  Actually, very little.  What does stand out is the sharp contrast between the chaos inside Jeff and Kelly’s home with Jenny’s arrival, and the peacefulness of the Nativity scene.  Peace is what the season is about, and though it sort of concludes on that note, a lot of what happens in between hit a little too close to home.  It is good to be with family during the holidays, but it has often been a tricky time for me and mine.  Again, this is such departure from what was meant by the King of Peace coming into the world.

Honestly, I do not know what else to say about Happy Christmas other than to emphasize how different it is from what is meant by Christmas.  In any case, this one should be avoided no matter the day on the calendar.