Movie Review: 'Friendsgiving' A Rare Thankgiving Comedy

Kat Dennings is and has been one of my favorite actresses for some time. Her acerbic presence and lightning wit made the TV series Two Broke Girls a brief delight while it existed. She was the best thing in the Thor sequel, Thor The Dark World and stole scenes in the original Thor as well. And yet, she doesn’t appear to get the big breaks that so many other actresses have gotten over the years.

That’s probably because she’s so unique. Brash, smart, sarcastic, she has a one of the boys quality that doesn’t translate easily to many major movie genres. She’s an out of the box presence that movie makers have yet to find a way to adapt to. She’s already a character and when a screenwriter isn’t writing for her, they have to rewrite for her to fit her big personality and presence. Or, maybe she just doesn’t want to play the kinds of roles that have made other actresses big stars.

Whatever the reason for her infrequent big screen appearances, I am always happy to see Kat Dennings and she is why I was so excited for the new comedy Friendsgiving. Co-starring another somewhat enigmatic leading lady, former, ever so brief It-Girl Malin Akerman, Friendsgiving is the kind of bold, raunchy comedy that had fallen out of fashion in recent years only to see women start to bring it back. (Yes, I liked the American Pie Girls Rule movie for the same raunchy reason.)

Friendsgiving stars Kat Dennings as Abby, a newly out lesbian who just saw her first signficant lesbian relationship end badly. She’s struggling with her new identity and the typical feelings of loss and rejection just as Thanksgiving arrives. Abby’s salvation is her best friend, a movie star, Molly (Malin Akerman) who has offered her a peaceful Thanksgiving, just the two of them and Molly’s new baby.

Molly is newly divorced, just months after the birth of her child, her marriage ended acrimoniously. Molly has been denying that anything is wrong while bouncing around to a series of men. Most recently, Molly has begun seeing Jeff (Jack Donnelly), a charity organizer who is currently unemployed and apparently homeless. With nowhere for Jeff to go, Molly invites him to Thanksgiving and to cover up for inviting her new boyfriend, she decides that she should turn the quiet day at home into a full blown gathering, much to Abby’s dismay.

From there a wide and bizarre array of friends and family and colleagues begin to arrive. First up is Abby and Molly’s best friend Lauren (Aisha Tyler) who begs to come and escape from her family only to then bring her husband (Deon Cole) and their two kids with her. Then, from out of nowhere, Molly’s mom, Helen (Jane Seymour), invites herself to Thanksgiving, coming all the way from her home in Sweden. Helen has also gone to the trouble of inviting Molly’s ex-boyfriend Gunnar (Ryan Hanson) who has been pining for Molly since before her marriage.

There are a lot of characters and a lot of chaos in Friendsgiving and yet, writer-director Nicol Paone manages the chaos with aplomb. The jokes rarely stop and yet, she never loses sight of her two main characters. Friendsgiving remains fully focused on Abby and Molly and the challenges they are facing. Abby is facing her heartache over her break up, fully coming out for the first time and Lauren who decided to invite a series of lesbian clichés to come and hit on Molly and for her to bat away with her snide yet civil dismissiveness.

The scenes of Molly dealing with these potential dates are accompanied by a running gag in which each of these women turn to the camera to state their name, likes, dislikes and so on, ala a dating profile. This serves to cut to the chase and not just render these very briefly appearing characters as walking punchlines. The device let’s us all in on the gag and actually gives a brief bit of humanity to these brief characters.

Akerman gets a lot to play as well with an accidental love triangle, her over-bearing and under-caring mother, her new baby and all the stress that comes from that and then her friendship with Abby which, other than her role as mother, is perhaps the most important thing to her. This is, in the end, a story of two female friends caring for each other, calling each other out and navigating a very tumultuous time for them both.

The lashing out at each other and the laughing together, it all feels real and it all really works. Akerman and Dennings have lovely chemistry, there’s even a hint that they attempted to be a couple at one point before Molly apparently realized she still likes men. All of that serves to make Friendsgiving brim with both love and comic tension. At times the characters are like pinballs bounding off of one another but then, they get a couple of quiet moments and the chaos gives those moments more meaning.

I really enjoyed Friendsgiving but I can see where it may not be for all audiences. Friendsgiving is unapologetically R-Rated and brimming with raunchy humor and ‘adult situations.' That said, if you are inclined toward such humor you will be rewarded by Friendsgiving. Kat Dennings, Malin Akerman and this large ensemble cast are a lot of fun with big laughs and terrific characters.