Party like your job depends on it
Office Christmas Party (2016)
When Carol Vanstone, CEO of the technology company Zenotek, expresses her intention to close the Chicago branch, run by her brother Clay, he and his co-workers organize a Christmas party in an effort to impress a potential client and save their jobs. But the party gets out of control…
rating 6/10 User rating 2,183 votes 57% ❄ Christmas Connection
The entire plot revolves around throwing an outrageous office Christmas party to impress a client and save a tech company's Chicago branch from being shut down. Christmas is the catalyst for the story, the setting, and the excuse for every escalating disaster.
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Our Review
Office Christmas Party arrived in theaters in December 2016 with a premise so simple it practically sells itself: what happens when a corporate Christmas party goes catastrophically off the rails? Directors Josh Gordon and Will Speck assembled one of the most overstuffed comedy ensembles in recent memory, gave them an office full of booze and bad decisions, and let the cameras roll. The result is a movie that's funnier than it has any right to be in spots and frustratingly formulaic in others.
The Cast of Office Christmas Party
Jason Bateman plays Josh Parker, the straight-man branch manager of a tech company's Chicago office. He's flanked by T.J. Miller as Clay Vanstone, the branch's lovable man-child CEO who inherited the position from his father. Jennifer Aniston shows up as Carol Vanstone, Clay's ruthless sister and the company's interim CEO, who plans to shut down the branch and cancel Christmas bonuses.
The supporting roster reads like a comedy draft pick: Kate McKinnon as an aggressively uptight HR rep, Olivia Munn as the genius programmer, Jillian Bell as a terrifying pimp, Courtney B. Vance as the corporate client they need to impress, and Rob Corddry delivering one of the film's best running gags as a guy slowly losing his mind over a custody battle. That's a lot of talent crammed into 105 minutes.
The problem is the movie doesn't always know what to do with them. McKinnon, in particular, deserves about three times the screen time she gets. Aniston plays the villain role capably but is stuck in a one-note part that gives her almost nothing to react to. Bateman does his reliable Bateman thing, which is both a compliment and a criticism.
When the Party Actually Works
The first act is standard workplace comedy setup. Boring presentations, cubicle politics, the threat of layoffs. It's fine. The movie starts earning its keep once the party itself kicks off around the 40-minute mark and escalates from "festive gathering" to "absolute pandemonium" with impressive commitment.
There's a cocaine-fueled 3D printer subplot. A baby born in a server room. A DJ booth set up in the lobby. An eggnog fountain that becomes a biohazard. The movie's best instinct is to keep stacking absurdities without pausing for the audience to question the logic. When it's firing on all cylinders, it captures the specific energy of a party that's gone past the point of no return, where every new disaster feels inevitable.
T.J. Miller anchors these sequences well. His version of a desperate party host trying to hold everything together while also being the primary cause of destruction is the movie's most consistent source of laughs. The scene where he attempts to land a helicopter on the office roof might be the comedic highlight.
Where It Falls Apart
The script, credited to three separate writing teams (never a great sign), can't decide what kind of movie it wants to be. There's a genuine tech-startup plot about a firewall product that could save the company. There's a romantic subplot between Bateman and Munn that generates roughly zero chemistry. There's a sibling rivalry between Miller and Aniston that could fuel an entire movie but instead gets resolved in about four minutes of screen time during the third act.
The film also falls into the trap of mistaking chaos for comedy. Not every scene of someone crashing through a ceiling or swinging from a cable is funny on its own. The best party-disaster comedies, like the first Hangover, anchor the mayhem in characters you're invested in. Office Christmas Party gives you characters you mildly enjoy and hopes the explosions will cover the difference.
The climax involves a car chase through Chicago's streets that belongs in an entirely different film. It's loud, expensive, and about as funny as any car chase in a comedy tends to be, which is to say, not very.
Is Office Christmas Party Worth Watching?
Here's the honest answer: it depends on your expectations. If you're looking for a sharp, well-crafted Christmas comedy, this isn't it. If you want something loud and dumb to put on after December drinks with friends, it does the job. The cast elevates material that would be forgettable with lesser performers, and there are enough genuine laughs scattered throughout to justify the runtime.
The movie grossed $114 million worldwide against a $45 million budget, so clearly plenty of people found exactly what they were looking for. It's not a film that rewards rewatching the way the best Christmas comedies do. You won't be quoting lines from it in ten years. But on a cold December night when you've already seen Elf twice this season, you could do worse.
The real legacy of Office Christmas Party might be Kate McKinnon's HR rep Mary Winetoss, who spends the entire film trying to prevent the party from happening and ends up being the one who loses control most spectacularly. It's a two-minute arc buried in a crowded movie, and it's better than most of what surrounds it.
Fun Facts
The movie was filmed primarily in Atlanta, Georgia, with the office interiors built on a massive soundstage to allow the destruction scenes to be filmed practically rather than with CGI.
Kate McKinnon improvised extensively throughout filming. Directors Josh Gordon and Will Speck estimated they used roughly 30% improvised material in the final cut.
The original script was titled "Office Christmas Party" from the start and circulated around Hollywood for years before DreamWorks Animation's distribution deal brought it into production.
Jennifer Aniston took the role of the villain partly because she wanted to play against type after years of rom-com leads. It was one of her few antagonist roles in a major studio comedy.
T.J. Miller performed many of his own stunts during the party sequences, including a scene where he rides a reindeer ice sculpture through the office hallway.
The film's costume department created over 200 unique ugly Christmas sweaters for the party scenes, many of which were auctioned for charity after production wrapped.
Courtney B. Vance, who plays the client Walter Davis, filmed all of his scenes in just five days despite appearing throughout the movie's second half.