Happy Christmas-A Film By Joe Swanberg

Christmas is anything but happy when Jenny(Anna Kendrick) comes to live with her filmmaker brother Jeff(Joe Swanberg) and his wife Kelly(Melanie Lynskey) an aspiring novelist.

Reeling from a breakup and hoping to help Jenny heal big brother Jeff thinks the move to live with him might help stabilize Jenny. His  motivation is two fold; Jenny heals and she can help him and his wife around the house. However, Jenny turns out to be more of a hindrance then helpful. On her first night the stage is set as Jenny goes out with friends, gets stone cold drunk and passes out clearly setting the stage for her immature and irresponsible  nature.  Kelly immediately sees the error in having Jenny around but decides to forgo her concerns. In the meantime Jenny falls for the neighborhood babysitter and bonds with Kelly empowering her to finish her novel.

I am sure on paper this script may have seemed like an intense character study, but for me at times it just seemed a bit too generic.  I did like the performance of  Melanie Lynskey, who plays an overwhelmed mom,clearly unhappy with her inability to fully pursue her dreams.  To be fair this film is about family and the choices  we make even when they may hurt others.

Happy Christmas – Now In Theaters, On Demand and iTunes

Director:              Joe Swanberg

Writer:                 Joe Swanberg

Featuring:           Anna Kendrick, Lena Dunham, Melanie Lynskey, Joe Swanberg, Mark Webber

Run Time:           78 minutes

Distributor:         Magnolia Pictures